Tangle
by KandyKitten
Summary: Loki is being punished on Asgard, but when events lead him back to earth, he escapes and immediately goes for revenge. Fighting the Avengers on his own soon proves to be too much for him to handle. In his enemys' hands, Loki starts to re-thinks his actions, but with the Avengers's distrust working against him and Thanos already on the move, it might still be too late...
1. Judgment

Every character belongs to Marvel; I just play with them a little.

* * *

He had expected a room full of people, watching citizens and soldiers alike. He had expected the air to be humming with shuffles of boots, the clink of armory and whisper of shifting fabric. He had expected hundreds of mouths murmuring words of hatred and mockery. He had expected hundreds of accusing eyes following every step of his humiliating walk towards the judgment chair.

What he got when he was dragged before the king by the Einherjar's unyielding hands was silence and probably the smallest audience that had ever gathered in Asgard's long, long history of trials.

The golden boxes were almost entirely empty, just about twenty people perched on the benches next and above the throne: Odin's brothers-in-arms on its right and Thor's personal worshippers - Sif and the Warrior's Three - on its left.

A little…insulting. Well, at least they all wore their ceremonial armory…

…while _he_ had been stripped of all signs identifying him as Asgardian citizen, let alone royalty.

Loki had seen more than one trail in his life but had never really understood why the accused were brought forward in nothing but one layer of fabric. Now that it was him, he could see all too well. Without his usual many layers of fabric, leather and metal, he felt light, defenseless, almost naked between all those heavily armed men.

It was a wonderful psychic trick. He was utterly humiliated and ridiculously intimidated, but he would die before showing it. He would never degrade himself in front of this man again.

So, despite his racing heart and clenched stomach,, he walked down the aisle with long, determined steps, shoulders back and chin raised, his eyes meeting those of everybody he passed with fake confidence and real disdain; his whole demeanor showing as much pride as he could muster beaten up, stripped of his armor, chained and gagged as he was.

The guards stopped at the golden stairs leading up to the throne, forcing him to stand between them.

By now, Loki's heart was racing one mile a minute, but still, he straightened his back even further, taking a prince's stance instead of kneeling as a prisoner should do. His eyes cockily locked with Odin's.

People started shuffling nervously as he made no move to greet or honor the king. From the corner of his eye, Loki saw Thor uncomfortably shifting his weight from one foot to the other, the not very convincing hard facade he had worn until now dissolved into a mask of sheer worry.

Had it been possible behind the muzzle, he would have grinned.

At his sides, the guards raised their spears and forcefully slammed them into the back of his knees, simultaneously pushing him down. Loki fell to his knees with an undignified gasp. He tried to glare up at them, but just a moment later, their hands painfully clawed into his hair and forced his head down into a servile bow.

Behind him, he heard a few chuckles and his hands clenched.

They would pay for this.

He would make them pay. He would silence those mocking tongues, blind every condemning eye, burn this hall down, melt all the gold and crystal and steel until all this blinding, arrogant splendor was nothing more than smoke.

For now, he had to be satisfied with re-locking his eyes with the king's as soon as he could, hoping the humiliation and fear he felt would not show on his face.

Odin looked back at him, but Loki could not tell if he was angry or impressed with that little show of defiance. The king's face, barely visible under the golden helmet, was an impassive mask. Loki was not sure if he liked that. Anger would have been better. Every emotion would have been better.

Slowly, the king rose from his throne, back and shoulders perfectly straight.

With his golden armor, rippling wool and silk and the heavy cape cascading over his shoulders and back to gather on the floor behind his boots, he looked strong and powerful despite his age. Impressive enough to cause Loki's mouth to go dry.

Gugnir's hilt touched the floor gently – for a heartbeat Loki remembered holding the spear, wielding it, the hum of power hidden beneath the surface and felt a surprising pang of jealousy cutting through the fear – but in the perfect silence it rung clear as a bell, as did Odin's voice.

"Loki…"

There was a pause, just long enough for the trickster to wonder if the dreaded lie 'Odinson' or the hated, despised, but true 'Laufeyson' would follow, but, cunning as he was, Odin found a way to avoid the decision.

"… of Asgard. You have lied and deceived to usurp the throne and attempted to murder one of your own kin and four warriors aiding him."

There was muttering at this, some people shifted. The king's voice easily drowned them out, but still, Loki could literary feel their outrage.

"You attempted not only to commit genocide but to kill all living things on Jotunheim, as you brought every surrounding world in danger while doing so. You allied yourself with a force hostile to this and every other world and, collaborating with this force, attempted to overtake a world that stood basically helpless against your powers, willingly risking and taking many innocent lives in the process."

Loki felt his stomach clamp painfully and, for the first time, broke their eye contact.

There was only one fitting punishment for his crimes, he had known that before being brought before the throne…he had known form the moment the human's strange, green creature started smashing him into the floor like a child their ragdoll.

The only question was: How was he going to die?

"The fitting punishment for those crimes would be exile…

Loki's eyes snapped up. _What_?

"…but your silver tongue has proven to be too dangerous. I cannot risk your poisoned words bringing another force up against us. Therefore, I sentence you to feel the consequences of your crimes until you have learned."

This time, the mutterings were louder, less angry and more confused. Nobody could imagine what this, _feel the consequences until you learn_, could mean. It was unlike any other sentence spoken here. Loki was almost sure that it was some strange euphemism for torture.

Except, there had never been a need for euphemisms in Asgard.

"Do you have anything to say before your punishment is taken out?"

One of the guards reached down, stoke Loki's long hair out of the way – he had to suppress a shudder when the cold hand touched the skin on his neck - and touched the muzzle somewhere at its back with both hands. For a moment, the metal got even tighter, then it fell open, finally freeing his jaw of all pressure.

Loki took a few deep breaths and relished the feeling of being able to breath freely again, then he slowly stood up again, re-straightened his back and slowly pushed his hair back and out of his face, buying the time he needed to shove his nervous confusion away for the moment.

"I just have to say this…" he started slowly, proud that his voice did not shake in the slightest. A little raspy, but strong and steady.

Odin's chin went up a little, apparently curious of his answer, Thor shifted again, worry and pleading mixing in his face, urging his brother to stay calm and pliant. Loki's eyes found his, held and released them.

"I confess."

Surprised sighs and murmuring, like a soft, white noise set in. Loki listened, let the suspense raise and made sure his expression was hard and unyielding.

"Ultimately, it was my hands that shed blood, carried out all the crimes counted by you, but they carried out the results of your lies, your deceiving, of your twisted morals and pretense. My actions were brought on by yours…and by your words."

Thor groaned, but Loki's eyes were fixated on Odin. Now, finally, there was a reaction, just a little frown, but it sent a hot wave of delighted excitement through his body.

Odin had not forgotten his mistake on the Bifrost's edge.

"Therefore, you may do to me whatever you want. You can sic you best men onto me, you can torture me with every cruelty your or their minds can concoct, let me feel all of Asgard's unrestrained brutality_, _but you can never change the fact that my sheer existence has your precious throne_ tremble on its ground_!"

His voice had become a hiss, and while Loki spit every word out as if tasting bitter, he threw himself forward, effectively forcing his guards a step forward.

"Every lie, no matter how well-spun it may be will unravel one day and when your many wrongs come to light, it will happen through my hand. My revenge will come over you. I will show this and every other world the rotten deceiver you truly are and force you to your knees in the end."

Finally, finally there was the trace of shock and pain in Odin's eyes that he had been looking for. It was almost satisfying…but Loki was not done yet. His lips twisted into a rabid, toothy grin and he opened his arms as far as the chains let him.

"Every man creates his own monster. Have a good look on what stands before you in chains today, Odin Allfather, for it was created by you and it shall be your downfall."

There was shocked, tense silence following his statement, then Odin raised his spear. Gugnir's hilt hit against the floor, the impact resonating louder than it should have been possible. The sentence was spoken and the trial over.

A hand twisted itself into his hair and brutally pulled his head back. A second hand clamped around his chin in a vice-like grip, holding him still while the muzzle was placed over his mouth and pulled cruelly taut, bruising his jaw and painfully crushing his lips against his teeth until he tasted blood.

The copper taste brought back the fear – fun was over, now there would be pain. They did not lead him down the aisle this time but through a smaller, though not less shiny door at the room's side, through the looming shadows under the overhanging grandstand, but despite the blood pounding in his ears, Loki followed without a struggle.

Had he just known what awaited him, he would have thrown himself to Odin's feet and begged for mercy instead.

* * *

To anybody who has gotten this far: Thank you for reading! I hope you liked the teaser and are at least a little curious for the next chaper, in wich we will see what Odin has in store for Loki and what the Avengers are doing while their nemesis is imprisoned.

Ideas and reviews make me work faster!

Lots Of Love,

Kandy Kitten


	2. Two Sides Of A Coin

Answers to your sweet review are beyond the chapter. Thanks, guys!

Warning: There will be some torture in this, but nothing too explicit.

Disclaimer: Characters © by Marvel.

* * *

Even though he did still count as young, judging by what age he could reach - if nobody ended his existence first - Loki _had_ seen more than two thousand years of lifetime; most of those well-kept and safe in Asgard, but also some on travel, hiding, tricking, hunting and battling, so he would never have described himself as inexperienced…or naïve.

He knew what could happen to you if you were not careful on battlefield. He knew what your enemies might do to you if they got their hands on you. He knew his body well enough to know what he could suffer through…or so he had thought.

In the deepest, darkest corner of Asgard's dungeons, with his back burned and blood running down his arms, Loki found out that he did not know anything.

Like, for example, he would never have imagined that he could come to the point where he would have done everything, _absolutely everything_, just to be allowed to scream.

Loki made a small sound in the back of his throat as something searing touched his hip. His breath came as sharp, ragged pants from behind the offending muzzle that suddenly felt much, much heavier than before. He could barely lift his head anymore...not that he wanted to.

What they were doing was bearable, but that did not mean he had to watch. Smell and feel was bad enough.

There was a sharp hiss as the blood covering…well, whatever they were using on him right now, Loki did not know for he had closed his eyes some time earlier...vaporized when it met the heat of the fires burning at the chamber's sides. Just the ugly sound promised worlds of pain.

Still, the pain was not the horrible part about this. This was not about pain, they were holding back.

Around the place where he was hanging in his ties, half-naked and perfectly open for the torturer's work, stood five of Asgard's most powerful magicians – only three of them female, so much for magic being "a women's skill only" – their eyes closed and their hands raised, palms facing inward.

They were neither restraining him, nor binding his magic – the shackles were doing both already and good – but trying to break down the walls protecting his thoughts…and eventually, subdue his mind.

Before he had been strung up here, they had explained to him what they wanted from him…and well, maybe he was not ready to do everything, because he would not do what they asked of him.

All he had to do, one of them, some tiny blond thing with cold eyes and a sneering voice, had told him, was to let them take over his mind. And then she had grinned at him and said: "But well, you know how this works, right? You have got some experience with mind-control, after all."

Loki, not able to answer, had simply stared at her with all the defiance he had.

So that was it what Odin had meant? They would treat him like he had treated the archer and the man of science on Midgard, making him their puppet?

He would never let that happen. _Never._

They had tried to break him just with the strength of their own minds and magic, but Loki fought back with skill and a feral brutality that was impossible for them to counter. So they had used other methods, more specifically, they had placed him into the trustworthy hands of Asgard's torture masters.

Not as punishment for resisting, Loki was clever enough to understand that even before they started slashing, beating and burning him. The pain was only meant to distract him, to break his concentration.

It had no finesse at all. Typical for a world honoring only brute strength. Unfortunately, it was also effective.

"Are you really so unwilling to accept your punishment? That is disgraceful, Loki."

A hand tore at his hair, pulled him backwards against the other man's body. The chains reached their limit and the cuffs jerkily slid over the already torn skin of his wrists, scratching them further open and sending a fresh, hair-thin line of blood down his arm. Loki heard a shaky whimper, but he did not quite process that it came from him.

"You shame your whole family with your cowardice."

Additionally to the pain, the torturer's reek of sweat, ale, metal and pipe weed filled his nostrils and the combination made him sick. He started to heave and forcefully tried to stop himself, get his body back under control.

_Do not get sick,_ he reminded himself_. If you get sick…if you just start to cry…you might suffocate. You know that they will probably not take the gag of. They will use it to frighten you. _

He held his breath and forced his muscles to relax. The grip on his hair tightened and the man shook him slightly, but the moment was over. He was still unyielding and he might be imagining it, but when he spoke again, the man's voice seemed to have a disappointed undertone.

"So you will not stand up for the crimes you committed? You will still not give in and pay your penance?"

It hurt, but Loki managed to shake his head jerkily.

"You are viler than any of us would have believed," he said and Loki crazily found it funny to be reprimanded by somebody who earned his food humiliating and hurting others. He hacked out stuttering breaths and there was no mistaking it for anything else than what it was: laughter.

"You are insane." That sounded almost fascinated. "Without conscience or mind. You are truly no citizen of Asgard, you are but a monster."

He was shoved roughly and the next moment, accompanied by a rough chuckle, something that might be a belt or a whip struck over his back – not very hard, almost absent-minded - but the words hit him harder anyway. Had it been coincidence or a calculated taunt?

What if it was _not_ coincidence that they used heat and fire to hurt him more than the other tools they surely had?

Loki's thoughts drifted away for just a moment, but that moment was enough. Like an electric shock, he felt one of the magician's consciousness brushing his and he was already scrambling to strike back when he heard the woman's voice whisper.

"Does it scare you how close he got to the truth, Laufeyson?"

The shock was like nothing he had ever felt before He froze, frantically looked for the speaker…and found the blonde thing looking at him with open disgust, magical energy flickering between her fingertips in her try to overpower him.

Loki only managed to stare at her, blending out the rest of the room…and paying no heed to the others. The walls were cracking, but it seemed unimportant compared to the fact that there was somebody else who knew and whom else had they told? Did Asgard already know, laughed behind his back?

And than there was a red-hot iron pressing against his spine. Loki jerked forward and the magicians used their chance when the last bit of Loki's concentration slipped fully, his resistance crumbled and crashed and he dropped into darkness.

* * *

Thor had practically begged his father to postpone the fest, but had been denied his wish. Apparently, it was necessary to show people that he was still unbeaten; that he could win even against a completely unknown force.

That he was a worthy heir to the throne.

He hated it, did think it inappropriate, but if he had been able to endure the feast right after he had supposedly lost his brother without destroying the hall, he could also go through this. He could smile and drink and tell stories and be merry all night.

After having emptied a whole of six goblets practically in one go, Thor was storming away from the table; fingers clenched and face hard.

It was not even that somebody had said something to anger him. It was just that he was worried and agitated and now he felt as if he would suffocate if he did not get some air immediately.

The guards positioned at the entrance doors stared at him uncertainly as he passed them. Thor's mannerisms had gotten a lot better, but everybody remembered his tantrums all too well, therefore, the voice of the man asking "My prince?" was a little shaky.

Thor took the time to growl: "Not now!" before rushing down the corridor.

On his way, nobody else dared addressing him. It might have been from respect, but Thor knew better: For the first time since his banishment, he was almost glad for his former impulsiveness.

And just like back then, he let his steam off by demolishing whatever got in his way.

When he had reached the door leading out to one of the castle's many balconies, he tore off the heavy bolt and carelessly let it drop before he threw the door open with all his power. The wings crashed into the walls on either side, bounced off and swung wildly, just to be smashed shut again behind him by the raging storm.

At the table, Sif and the Warrior's Three exchanged glances stuck between worry and exasperation.

Fandral was the first to speak up. "Every time you think he finally has managed to get himself under control..." He broke off and gestured towards the way Thor had taken moments ago.

Volstaag eyed the clean plate at Thor's former seat. "He has not even eaten. Just dunk a lot, and very fast."

"Well, of course he has. Thor has always drunk too much and went on rampages when something distressed him." Fandral lowered his voice to a whisper. "And I would say Loki's performance today does count as 'distressing'."

Hogun sighed, refilled his goblet and chugged it down. "Someone should go and talk to him before he breaks anything important. Or anyone important."

Nobody moved. The three man's eyes wandered over to the only women in their group. Sif endured the urging looks for a minute, then sighed and stood up. "Fine. I'll go."

She turned to fast to see her friends' gratitude, turned fast to hide the nerves showing on her face. All of them knew how difficult Thor could become and until last year, there had been someone else to calm the Thunder God down, to talk him back into reason, to get him to focus onto something else.

_No reason to dwell in the past_, she told herself. _See it as a new challenge._

Still, she was getting more nervous with every step (and a little angry with herself – who got scared about facing their own dearest friend?), and her anxiety grew all the more when she had to lean herself against the dented doors with all her strength to compete against the raging winds outside, but the scenery behind them let her forget all former worries.

Thor stood with his back turned towards her, his fingers closed tightly around the rail. His blonde hair and the red cape, both flying wildly, were the only patches of colors before the dark grey storm clouds swallowing up every ray of the evening sun usually illuminating the golden city splayed out far under them.

Sif had gotten over her crush on Thor. In moments like this she remembered why she had to get over it in the first place.

"Sif," Thor greeted her without turning. "You should be at the feast."

Sif gave him a wild smile that he could not see, but unquestionably hear in her voice. "Well, so should you. It is given for you, after all."

A streak of lightening illuminated the clouds' rims in bright blues and whites, the following thunder was loud enough to make even her wince, but despite what Sif knew to be a show of anger, Thor's voce was collected.

"I know," he said. "But I do not wish for merry company tonight. I don't think I have calmed down enough yet, the battle is still close and my mind is not yet set for rest. I would be best if you returned to the table and enjoyed the night, Sif."

Thor didn't hope for one moment that this would be enough to ease her worries, but maybe it was enough to stop her from asking. Sif knew him well enough to know why he was upset. On the other hand, she was stubborn.

And also shockingly blunt. "Do you know what your father has planned for Loki?"

Thor sighed and let his shoulders drop in defeat. "I know what he has planned only to a certain degree. Admittedly, I…don't know enough about magic to really understand what he will do to my brother. I do understand that it will be…horrible for him and…"

Thor broke off, contemplating. Sif walked to his side to have a better look on her friend's unusually sinister face and seeing her worry, he felt all dams break.

"I…I fear for his sanity, Sif. Loki's mind is fragile at best and such a hard punishment might worsen him. It might rile him up against us even more. I know that my father tries to do what is best for my brother, but still, I fear for him. I fear that there might be no cure for his hatred."

By now, the lightning and thunder had subsided, but the winds raged on and Sif started to shiver in the dress she wore this evening. The metallic ornaments got cold and the fabric was too thin. Still, she refused to leave Thor's side.

"Thor, you must trust in your father now. He knew what to do with you, he will know what can help him. You cannot do anything right now. Come back in with me and forget your worries for a while."

Thor looked at her finally nodded. As his father had said, he should be in there, gloating about his victory and soothing everybody's minds. He smiled at Sif and stepped in front of her to hold the door open, walked beside her and slowed his steps to match hers.

They did not talk, even though Thor could practically hear all the questions she didn't know how to ask.

Only at the entrance door, Sif gathered all her courage together, stopped him with a hand on his chest and asked him the one question that all of them had been asking themselves since the trial.

"Do you know what he meant with all this talking about liars and monsters?"

Thor looked at her and thought about the way she had stopped calling Loki 'your brother' ever since the Destroyer-incident, the hatred in her voice when she had heard what he had done, the anger in her eyes when she had first seen him again. The way she had tried to comfort him after he had announced Loki dead, how she had always been there for him, fought with him, laughed with him, followed him always.

"No. I do not know what he was talking about, I'm afraid."

He felt horrible about lying to them, but somehow, he managed apologize to them for just running away as he took his place again and when he could still see the worry on all their faces, he made it his task to make their night worth the while.

Thor hid his bad mood behind a wide, merry smile and grand gestures as he re-told the battle against the Chitauri that had taken place between the incredible high buildings of stone and steel and glass in the city the humans called 'New York'. He spoke of the miraculous transformation of Banner into the Hulk, the Captain's honor and determination, the assassins' unmatched skills and the wonders that were Stark's technology.

He did never mention Loki, not with one word.

If anybody noticed, they did not mention it. Neither did anybody ask for him.

* * *

Well, here I am again, apologizing for taking so long. I'll try to do better from now on, if anybody is still interested in reading. I know, the part with Thor and Sif is a little...slow, but I swear, just one more chaper of 'neccessary background', then we head for some action!

As always, I appreciate reviews and constructive critics.

All of you who have taken time to comment, you will find my answers below!

Lots Of Love, KandyKitten

** autumn**: Thank you for the review! I'm glad you liked it so far, I tried my best to get the characters realistic, really glad it seemed to have worked. Hope, you liked this chapter, too!

** rachelhighway:**Sorry I took so long. Thanks for the review!

** potkanka: **My, my, a spoiler request! Let me do the easier things first: Loki's redemption is possibly, I'm totally with you on that! I'm glad you like the way I write our favourite God of Mischief, I hope, you liked this chapter as well.

Now to the Spoiler: Let me think… The question is actually pretty hard to answer because I know the direction the story is going to take and I know every key-scene I want to add, but I'm not entirely certain about the last chapters yet. I don't think it will and as depressive mess, though.

** jaquelinelittle:**Thank you for reviewing! I'm glad you liked it so far. You're right about the throne and his parentage, of course. In the first draft, I even had Loki trying to talk about it and Odin cutting him of mid-rant. The scene where they gag him again was actually Odin stopping Loki from betraying too much, but Loki is just so broken in "Thor" when he learns what he is and he still refers to himself as "of Asgard" … it kind of didn't feel right to have him speak it out, so I changed it into Loki just hinting to hurt his former family.

** Constance Bonacieux**:Thanks! I hope you were content with this!

** The "Guests":** Thanks for your comments, I hope you stay with me 'till the end!

Thanks to those, who put me on their Favorites! I'll try not to disappoint.

Thanks, too, to my Followers. Always glad to have some!


	3. In Dreams

Hey, everybody!

I'm so sorry it took me so long, but I had to do some important homework and essays for university and as much as I wish it wasn't like this, education comes before Fanfiction.

Next chapter might take a little, too, but I promise, I will upload one before Christmas.

Now, I'll shut up and let you read the new chapter. Have fun!

KandyKitten

Almost all characters and locations © by Marvel

* * *

He had never seen the room before and he never wanted to see it again.

The walls and floor were polished stone, caved with gently glowing, golden runes winding over the walls in disturbing, hypnotizing spirals, coiling around and crossing each other on the way from the ceiling over walls and floor.

In the middle of the room, a thigh-high, rectangular stone rose seamlessly from the floor, polished to perfect smoothness. From the middle in height, nine sharp-edged golden poles spouted from each side of the stone, reaching three to four feet up, curling outward with their tips pointing to the stone's middle.

To Thor, they looked like the ribcage of some huge animal, covered not by flesh and skin, but by a layer of magical energy running from edge to edge and tip to tip, very loosely enclosing Loki who lay unconscious on the slab

The soft glow hit his face from every direction and erased every clear shadow from Loki's face, pronouncing the bruising along his jawline and making him look waxy and sick. He looked like he was on the verge of death.

Then again, his eyes moved rapidly beyond closed lids, his breath was a little uneven – deep, yes, but uneven - and occasionally, his fingers would flinch, just as if he was having a very vivid dream.

In a way, he was and that thought was disconcerting.

"Are you sure that this is right?" he asked his father for the thousands time.

Odin sighed and when he answered, his voice sounded a little exasperated, but not angry.

"Thor, I know that you worry for him. I do, too. But Loki tried to commit horrible crimes. If he had succeeded, I would have had to sentence him to death. This must be an effective deterrent to stop him from ever trying something like this again and it must work."

Thor's shoulders slumped. He knew that his father was right, but still…it seemed cruel.

"Therefore," Odin continued, "Loki must understand what he has done to the people he attacked. What pain and grief he has caused. He must learn compassion. This is the only way to teach him."

Thor nodded sullenly. The explanation seemed logical and that was frustrating. Everything about this situation was frustrating. His fingers found Mjölnir's handle – he would not try anything here, but he took some comfort from it.

Admittedly, he also enjoyed the way the magicians' eyes nervously flickered over his hand and face.

After they had sounded so horrible smug while explaining him what they were doing, he hoped they would fear him a little. Not wanting to have to answer to him would maybe urge them to do their work right.

This procedure was effective, but also dangerous – had Thor known the right terms, he might have compared it to a difficult brain-operation. One wrong move could send Loki too deep into a hallucination, could lock him there. One wrong move might destroy his mind forever.

"I think we have seen enough." Odin could see how close his son was to say or do something stupid and decided to intervene. "You did your work well until now. We will leave you to it now."

Thor's head snapped around to look at him in angry disbelieve.

He could not imagine that his father would let him see this and then ask him to simply leave his brother alone here, in dark and cold and with those smug strangers who actually seemed to enjoy causing his little brother pain…

Except, he could imagine well.

"Father, can I not…" he tried weakly, but Odin had made his decision and he knew it.

"No. You would only be in their way, disturbing their concentration. Not to mention that your presence might lead Loki out of his trance and back here before the lesson is fastened."

Tor nodded in defeat and began the way back up to daylight, leaving his brother behind to memories of the pain, fear and grief that had raged on Midgard as he had let his army loose on it, hoping that Loki would learn his 'lesson' as fast as possible.

He was all too aware that he might lose him should he not.

* * *

He didn't know what was happening around him.

There was noise and fire, people running and screaming in panic and terror, all of them running for cover and pushing and shoving each other in their stampede. With all the gray dust covering them, they looked like figures in some video game.

He was running with them, panic making him faster than he had ever been.

Panic also made him headless and when he actually reached the line of police vehicles, it was from luck. He looked around, not actually seeing anything, when a strong hand grabbed his shoulder and turned him into another direction.

"Underground! Go underground, into the subways!"

He saw a flash of blue and red and white when this hand shoved him forward. Mindlessly, he followed the barked order, stumbled towards the subway, but once there, he was shoved and pushed around and he stopped, seeing clearly for the first time since this had started.

There were too many. Too many people, all of them hysterical and blind with horror and fear and all of them tried to get into the too-small entrance.

Right in front of his eyes, an elderly woman tripped and fell onto the stairs. Just a moment later, a group of teenagers trampled over her back, not hesitating for a moment.

He turned and sped forward again, deciding to take shelter in one of the office buildings instead, somewhere where he wouldn't be trampled to death. He had almost made it…and then, some of those alien-aircrafts saw the crowd and thought it an easy target.

Blue streaks flew, blasting holes into the crowd and the concrete. The screams became louder, even more hysteric, almost completely drowning out the sounds of their aircrafts. Almost.

He could hear the one approaching. It was lower than the others. He could see the energy building in the weapon's muzzle and he knew that he would not life.

The impact sent him flying and when he hit the concrete, he could no longer breathe. His chest burned horribly. There were screams and cries and a smell like burned meat. Then…blackness.

* * *

_Deep inside, Loki knew that it was not him running around in the streets of Manhattan, fleeing from the Chitauri, scrambling for shelter like rats when the cat landed in their middle. _

_He could even feel the stone, his body weight uncomfortably squeezing the burns on his back against the hard surface. He could feel the ache in his jaw where the muzzle had bruised it. The scratches around his wrists. _

_He was laying. But on the same time, he was running._

_He felt the human's steps and stops, no, he was the human running and hiding, ducking and jumping up, seeing the streak rushing in to end his life. The fear and helplessness. The shock and horror._

_Deep inside, with the very core of his mind, Loki fought._

_The rest of him,_ _wounded and terrified, stormed through the streets of Manhattan, scrambling for shelter like a rat when the cat landed close to it. _

* * *

Three days after Thor's and Loki's arrival on Asgard, the magicians exchanged a worried glance.

They were not feeling the physical and mental experiences of the humans that they were sending Loki nearly as strong as he did. It was not comfortable, but they could deal with it. It was not the problem.

The problem was Loki's continued refusal to surrender to them.

"Do you think he could wake up?" one of the men asked lowly. His body was drenched with sweat from the exhaustion.

"Only if we stop," was the immediate answer.

They rose their hands – now glistening with sweat - leading their magic into the spells written all over the walls and floors. The membrane surrounding their prisoner flickered, their different auras snaked their way around the sharp poles, winding into it.

Unnoticed by all of them, Loki's fingers twitched toward the poles before falling limp again.

* * *

The next one was a man, who ended up cowering in a tunnel, crying and wishing he had gone with his wife to visit her parents instead of telling her that he had to work. He knew that he might never see her and his children again and the thought that they had argued….it was too much to bear.

Another man, looking not for shelter but for his beloved girlfriend, only to find her already dead. He was completely devastated: The Chitauri's weapons had practically blown a hole into her stomach. She had been pregnant.

Then a woman - young, barely twenty – who shielded her already dead fiancé with her own body. She couldn't process it, didn't realize how hard she was crying. She shook him, called his name, the shock made her blind for her surroundings, even when shards fell down on them like rain.

A girl, about ten, watching her mother being killed by a wild shot. Her big brother clutched her tight when she tried to run to her, held her while she cried, not able to believe, to understand….

A man again, locked in his car. The fuel had caught on fire and now, the flames crept closer and closer while he, full of terror, struggled to get out of the safety belt pinning him down. He was screaming. Pleading when the heat reached him, but neither flames nor safety belt listened.

And then came dozens, dozens of dozen more.

* * *

_And Loki was everywhere with them._ _In the tunnels. In the buildings. On the streets. In the crowd, getting pushed and squeezed. He was there, __**was**__**them**__, experienced their fear and pain. Their deaths. Not before long, a tiny part of him was pleading, too, but he did not stop to fight. _

_Loki had a plan. _

_Well, more an idea. He knew, all he had to do was either to break their concentration – but that was impossible. _

_So he went for the next best thing – he had to re-connect his mind with his body. He had to find himself again._

_And until he managed to, he endured._

* * *

Hours later, Loki was getting closer to the surface.

Once, his eyes had even flickered open. All of them knew, they would not be able to hold him much longer.

So they did the only thing they considered right: They send one of the women, the one who was more exhausted than the others, to inform the king. The rest of them gathered their strength and activated the next memory.

The explosions and shots were deafening. Shards had cut through his thin soles. His legs were painfully cramped, hard as stone.

Still, he was running on full speed.

From the corner of his eye, he could see Stark Tower and the portal in the sky, spewing out more of those shooting things. While he was looking, his foot got caught in some hole in the street. He stumbled jerkily forward, his free hand flayed wildly to keep balance.

His other hand tightened around the small body of his daughter, Anne, thrown over her shoulder, fingers digging into indulgent flesh.

The girl gave a howling, high-pitched cry that hurt in more way than one, but h had no time for that now. He had to get off the street. Get her home. Now.

Anne continued to cry, an inhumane, screeching wail, tiny hands clawed into the back of his shirt, somewhere clinging and pushing. His hands tightened even more. He knew he was hurting her, but he had to keep her safe.

_Loki felt as if he was being torn into two. _

_He saw the street and felt the girl's body, but at the same time, he saw a membrane of magic and the ceiling behind it. Loki's hand moved, painfully slow, but it did. _

_Now, he was not only driven by determination, but also by rising panic. He feared to know what would be coming next and he absolutely did not want to see it. _

_The only thing he wanted less was to feel it. _

Thy were two blocks away when a bunch of golden alien vehicles rushed down the street. He stopped, looked up in absolute horror and for a moment, he thought he could see something different.

Between the gray and gold of the aliens, there was a figure on one of the vehicles that looked human. He saw green fabric – a cape? – flying in the sharp wind…then they all fired.

The cars in front of him exploded in a red-and-white blaze. A searing pressure wave hit him, knocked him off his feet…and he lost his grip on his daughter. He tried to grope for her even while falling, but all he got was dress's hem, a piece ripped out and then she was gone.

_His fingers found the pole, felt the sharp edge. With an incredible effort, he closed his hand around it, pressed down…._

He sat up and looked for Anne and when he saw her, his life ended.

She was on her stomach, her head twisted to the side in an unnatural angle. The cheek facing up was smooth, the other one covered in abrasions. Brown hair fanned over it, singed, but not burning. Her dress, pink, decorated with yellow flowers, was hitched up to the middle of her thighs. There was a bow just above her waist, a big flower right in the middle.

Above that, her back was a burnt, black-and-red mess of fabric and skin all charred and melted together. Her smoldering shoulder blades stood out like white thorns, smoking with heat.

…_.and he pulled it upwards._

_Sharp pain shot through his palm, and suddenly, his body was his own again. _

_Loki awoke with a start, gasping and coughing, but not strong enough to sit up yet. His bleeding hand was still clenched, widening the wound, but he could not let go._

_He was not strong enough to scream, either, but that did not stop him from trying and when he did try, the pain in his hand was not the only reason. _

* * *

When Odin came into the room, Loki was already sitting up.

Even in the dim light, he could see the sheet of sweat on Loki's haggard features, the trembling of his hands. The light shirt they had clothed him in was rumpled and hitched up a little, revealing an angry red burn on his hip.

He looked weakened and exhausted and he already felt a glimmer of hope…and then, Loki looked up and their eyes met.

"Allfather." His voice shook, but the mocking tone was still unscathed. "You look weary."

Loki took a moment to let Odin remember where he had last heard those words, then he began to laugh, a slightly hysteric, high-pitched chuckle.

Behind this mask, he was shell-shocked. Had he just had something in his stomach, he knew he would have thrown up the moment he had woken up, but like this, he only tasted some bile. Still, he felt horrible, hurting, sick…desperate.

When he was desperate, he wanted to hurt.

Even Odin himself recoiled from the wild mix of emotions raging in his adoptive son's eyes. He could see understanding beginning to dawn, but there still was too much hate.

"After all of this, you still long for fight and war, Loki?" he asked and was rewarded with a toothy grin.

"You will never break me. I will never give in."

Odin hesitated. He could overpower Loki's mind himself this time, throw him back into the human's memories, but he feared that a direct attack would leave his son hating him even more. He thought about trying to let Thor talk to him, but they would only end up fighting again.

And then, he got to another idea.

Loki longed to be feared. To be in the center of everybody's attention.

Sighing, he raised Gungnir. Loki coiled warily, looking ready to jump. He was not sure if his...if _Odin_ would attack him now. Honestly, he had no idea what he would do should it get that far.

Once again, the spear touched the ground. Golden light filled the room.

The last thing he heard before he sank into mercifully dreamless darkness was Odin's voice in his head, whispering without any expression.

"You will have time to think that over."

* * *

And cut! Another chapter done!

Ah, you didn't need to worry, people, Loki doesn't break that easily! He's far too stubborn to. Still…I got my ideas of what to do to him next, and I hope you'll all be with me!

Once again, I apologize, I literally wrote this from break to break, but still thought I could experiment a little by throwing in Loki's split perspective…well, never mind. Next time, we'll have a look on the rest of the bunch, see what they did while Loki is doing time in Asgard.

I hope you enjoyed! As always, constructive critic, ideas and speculations are welcome!

Thanks to my favorites, followers and reviewers!

Lots of Love,

Yours KandyKitten


	4. Who Would Have Thought?

!ATTENTION PLEASE! I uploaded a chapter 4 before, but then I went over the whole story again and this was just a rough summary of relationships that didn't do anything for the storyline itself. So this is the second draft; just if anybody was confused.

Hey Guys! This is KandyKitten, ashamedly crawling out of her corner.

I know, I promised a chapter before Christmas and now it's already past New Year's Eve…my apology...well, it's below this chapter. I know, mean, right?

To everybody who wrote a review: the answers are beyond this chapter!

Enjoy, dear readers!

Most characters and settings © by Marvel. I'm just playing with them.

* * *

_~eleven months post-Chitauri~_

There were many good things that came from working with SHIELD, Tony told himself.

There was the fact that they paid for the property damage when they smashed men and things into cars and walls and such and for the hospital fees when they got smashed into cars and walls and such.

All the super-secret stuff he could get into his fingers now – the kind of stuff so secret there were no more copies anywhere else on the world. The defensive upgrades he build for the Helicarrier when he was in the mood to get his hands dirty.

They cleared Bruce's name, in the public as much as in the military, got him off the wanted-lists and kept Ross and his over-eager Hulkbuster units from attacking him.

Still, no matter how hard he tried to remember all those things, flying after a tiny, unimportant, stupid thief and his jet-powered car in the heaviest rain-and-hail-storm the whole state had seen in five goddamned years could dampen even his usually always good and generous mood. Especially when their god was on the wrong planet to re-route said storm for a while.

The Com-Link sprung alive with an unusual, sharp crack. "You got clear sight, Stark? 'Cause honestly, I can hardly see past my freaking nose-tip."

Tony chuckled and blinked against the water and ice hammering against his visor.

"Call every tabloid – that'll make page one." Internally, he winced - even the Com-Link suffered the storm's effects, half of what he said or heard went under in the crackling static. It was like using old walkie-talkies.

"Figure of speech, Stark," came the deadpan answer.

"You sure? Cause, you know, I'm a rich man and all, I could get you glasses. Or maybe binoculars, if you like that better. Do you want me to buy you binoculars? Because that can be arranged."

"Do you want me to shoot an arrow in your ass? Just, you know, 'cause that can be arranged."

Tony could perfectly hear Clint's smirk despite all the white noise and he laughed in response. He loved to banter with JARVIS, but it was kind of refreshing, too, to bicker with somebody else during a fight.

Especially because it had a rather amusing side effect.

His continued babble annoyed the crap out of his fellow teammates and especially out of one certain brawny guy with the world sight of an ninety-year old and higher moral standards than a hardcore nun.

And today, everybody's nerves were already frayed, so Captain Steroid's lecture voice already held the tense undertone that usually only came out after at least fifteen minutes of Tony Stark's Patented Nonstop-Talk™.

"This is no joke, so at least try to focus and pull yourselves together."

"What?" He made it sound like a high-pitched whine. "'No joke'? Captain, there is a two-bit thief in a car looking like she's been built form Quinjet-scrap playing a game of fetch with us in a hailstorm. I'd say that's right out of a comedy."

Roger's groan marvelously mixed with Clint's bark of laughter and Natasha's incredibly loud silence. Rain or no rain, this was starting to get fun.

"Stark…"

And there it was, all the righteous anger of heaven and earth compressed into one word. Damn, how…provoking.

"Seriously, it's like Fury ordered this weather just to make our job harder," he cut Rogers off.

"Maybe he did. Would explain why Thor isn't here," Clint muttered half-aloud, but the mirth in his voice was fading into concentration. Their connection was getting better, too, apparently they were closing in on the bend where he was waiting for them.

Tony let JARVIS zoom in on the two figures speeding down the road under him, one broad and one slim, both leaned deep over their bike's handles and honestly wondered how they could follow the car, let alone see the street.

"Stark, do you have visual?"

"Why so formal, Captain? I thought we were close enough to skip the military crap." He zoomed in even closer, but still couldn't see a reaction. Pity.

Hearing, he could pretty good. If the breathed growl actually came from Rogers, that was.

"Stark. In your free time, you can be every bit as annoying as you want. But during missions, for god's sake…"

Tony rolled his eyes, remembered that Rogers couldn't see it and gave a loud, exaggerated sigh instead. "Don't get your skintight panties in a twist, Cap. JARVIS's got him."

"Good." Natasha's voice was cool and professionally collected, as always, what was admirable, considering she, too, had to yell over static and her bike's roar. "There's a crossroad coming up, is he taking the right way?"

Tony tore his gaze away from his teammates and let JARVIS put the fleeing vehicle on the screen instead. The round jet shifted and the car, which wheels and seams looked ominously strained by now, moved to the left.

"In a moment, he will be."

He felt a slight push when the rockets loosed themselves from his right shoulder. Just a moment later the asphalt tore open in a half-circle and the car severed wildly, went in an dangerous drift around the right-hand bend, gaining speed on the long, plain stretch behind it.

Tony slowed down. The motorcycles did, too. The car got faster…

A thin, lightning-fast silver line cut through the rainy veil from above and the jet at the car's rear sputtered and died down. High above them, on the hill on the left hand, Clint stood up and lowered his bow.

Tony smirked. Mission complete.

* * *

"According to my calculations, the life-support systems would not withstand, Sir."

"It has to be manageable somehow." Tony drummed his fingers against armor's chest plate momentarily fastened on his table, mimicking the hammering drum's rhythm. "It's not like we're talking about flying to the end of the Universe and back. Neptune would be enough, for starters."

"Very modest plans indeed, Sir."

Chuckling, Tony turned back to the screens. There was no way around it: His armor still was no space shuttle. And that was not acceptable.

"Eh, don't worry, Jarvis. We solved every other problem, we are going to solve this."

There was no response, but it was not necessary anyway. He had already started typing away and from the corner of his eyes, he could see JARVIS going back to work. If you could have anything in common with an AI, then their similarity was their ambition. Making possible what everybody else…well, maybe every boy…dreamed of.

Right now, this boy dreamed of space travel.

Thankfully, he had had a lot of free time during the past month. The less dangerous villains seemed to lay low lately, the more dangerous ones were mostly caught – sure, there had been some rumors concerning Mystique, but nothing had happened so far.

Or maybe, Fury was just still angry about him and Steve getting half a block covered in sewage when they had been too busy bickering to keep an eye on their opponents.

Well, whatever it was, it didn't seem like Fury was about to call them back into…

"Sir? Incoming call from SHIELD Director Fury"

He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but the AI sounded horribly smug. Sometimes he could have _sworn_ JARVIS knew his thoughts.

He considered ignoring it, then he sighed. "Jus' one moment, Jarvis." He turned the music down and either shut down every screen and 3D model or hid them behind screensavers, just in case. "Fine, put him through."

"About time, Stark!"

Tony twisted the screen showing the director's face towards himself and offered a mock salute. "Morning, Captain Patchy. Any reason for…."

"I need you to come in immediately," Fury cut him off in a tone sharp enough to snap even Tony's mood form slightly annoyed teasing to full alert. "I fact, I need a full assembly, so bring Banner and Thor. SHIELD facility three."

Tony frowned. "How do you know..."

"Five minutes, Stark!"

Fury already turned away while hanging up. A little dumbfounded, Tony stared at the now completely black screen, but anger wouldn't come. Not even annoyance. Actually, he was more worried – this tone he didn't hear often. "Jarvis, save our effort…on my personal servers only, please. Oh, and tell the others to meet me at the garage."

"Of course, Sir."

He would have liked how Fury knew Bruce and Thor were here, especially considering he had protected the tower against every form of intrusion, be it personal or digital.

He would also have liked to know how much the superspy knew about the nature of their stay.

He wasn't sure why, but he liked the thought of keeping the CT-scans and blood samples they had taken from Bruce and Thor – one man the Hulk, the other man an alien, who would not be tempted? – and the comparisons with human tests secret. As secret as his suit's machinery, hopefully.

Witch reminded him…

"And while you're at it, prepare the Mark VI," he added, making his way to the elevator. Too bad he had taken Mark VII apart for his experiments, seeing as it had been the only one that had seen a flight into open space before.

"As good as done, Sir."

And JARVIS held whet he promised: Tony finished putting on his suit just in time with Banner entering. Thor followed up behind him, looking more confused than worried.

Bruce stepped up to him, unconsciously wringing his hands. "What's with the rush?"

Tony shrugged, the motion now accompanied by a high mechanic hum. "Fury didn't say. Did sound pretty serious, though."

"Where are we being called to?" Thor asked him.

"Facility three," Tony told him and when Thor still looked clueless he added:" One of SHIELD's quarters at the edge of town. They've got something to show us, I guess." He turned back to Bruce. "How are you getting there?"

"I'll drive." He sounded a little hasty, but that was all right, considering the last time he had tried to make Bruce fly with him.

"Do what you have to," he grinned. "Coming?" Thor grinned back and nodded, both of them taking position to start while Bruce made his way over to the several bikes and cars, keys swinging from his fingers.

"We'll tell you what's what when you arrive…see you in an hour!"

Bruce called something after him, but he couldn't hear it anymore over the rush of wind and the thrusters' uproar. He rose up like a rocket, spun around without waiting and sped north, taking course on SHIELD.

For the first time since six weeks, his mind was far away from space travel.

* * *

"Well then…Where's the fire?"

And look at that, Captain Perfect was the last one to come. Who would have thought?

Natasha threw Steve a glance and shook her head. "No idea. But it's got to be quite something; we were called here from a business-man-slash-big-dealer's party in Chile. _Directly_ from the party. We even had to leave our stuff in the hotel."

Tony grinned at her. "You were on a party in full-blown agent gear?"

The answer was an exasperated eye roll, pronounced by very dark lashes. Now that she had mentioned it – she was wearing unusually thick make-up. Maybe that was the reason she was the only one who did not look like a zombie in the unhealthy shine of neon lights and screens.

"Changed on the plane. I'm not going to fight…Doom in High Heels and a designer dress with no back."

"Doom?" Thor asked inquisitively. "Do you believe the Doctor Doom has escaped his confinements?"

"Well if it is Doom, then it's Richard's problem, right?" Tony scoffed. Now that Fury had let them wait for almost ten minutes, his worry was fading back into annoyance for being summoned like that. "I swear, if Fury made us rush here like crazy because of this annoying, megalomaniacal, ugly, two-bit villain who…"

"Well, Mr. Stark, good news is…"

Everybody turned around, but with varying degrees of surprise. Fury stood in the door that nobody had heard opening, posture loose, but with a certain agitated air surrounding him. Automatically, everybody straightened, too.

"…Doom is still right where he belongs. Bad news is that there's probably an even worse megalomaniac giving us trouble."

Natasha pulled one brow up. "Someone new?"

"Just follow me, please." Fury beckoned them to come with one finger, turned and marched back form where he came. The team exchanged glances, then Steve shrugged and took lead, following Fury down the corridor.

As soon as the door had slammed shut after them, the director took the word again. "Five weeks ago, I sent you to catch a man, a complete stranger, fleeing in a jet-car, but I don't think I told you why a simple thief required the Avengers, did I?"

"No, Sir." Tony would have said something himself, but the slightly demanding undertone in Steve's voice stopped him.

"It was not the man himself, but the things he stole. Information. And not just missile plans, either. Information on SHIELD, on the whole country's defense tactics and possibilities, blueprints of whole cities, research programs and information on the World Council, whom nobody who does not work for us should even know about in the first place."

"So a terroristic act," Steve concluded, but he sounded like he wasn't entirely convinced..

"That's what we thought. So we brought.."

"What would interest me most," Tony harshly interrupted him, "is how could he get to all this stuff in the first place? I mean, how bad _is_ your security?"

Fury threw him an angry look that might have looked more intimidating had Tony just stood at the side where the eye was.

"That's what we wanted to know. He was not on the security feeds and there was no intrusion detected in our servers and databases. So, we brought him in here for questioning."

To everybody's surprise, Thor asked: "Did you find your man helping him?"

Tony made a mental note. So Thor was just as convinced that SHIELD was less than corruption-free as he was…and a little smarter concerning tactic than he usually let on.

"Unfortunately, no." Fury paused to open the next door, leading right into another dim-lit, narrow corridor. He re-locked the door behind them before leading them further. "He wouldn't say anything, but there are only five people in SHIELD who have the possibility to get hands on all this, so we decided to search him on our own and tried to move him."

The next door, but this time, Fury didn't open it. He stood there, doorknob in his hand. A thin line of bright light cut through the semi-darkness.

"And that is when he suddenly tried to escape. Our men tried to stop him and one of them got him with his Taser. And _that's_ when.."

"Lemme guess…" Clint sighed. "That's when he suddenly developed superpowers, killed everybody in the way and now is wreaking havoc somewhere in town?"

"No, smartass!" Fury was positively glowering at his impolite, continuously interrupting team by now. "That's when he dropped dead."

Everybody exchanged a glance. Tony suddenly doubted that the Taser-story was true, thought about asking and decided he didn't want to know.

"And then the really interesting thing happened. When he was on the floor, there was some sparks, some blinking…and then his body began to change, revealing…"

He threw the door wide open. Behind it was a brightly-lit laboratory with white walls, blinking metal and chrome…and a table with something on it, something big and thin, gray and gold, long, thin arms and legs…

"…this."

It was dead, but the shock sat too deep for relaxation. Muscles tensed, hands found weapons, seven bodies took fighting stance.

On the table, already partially cut open, lay the limp body of a Chitauri.

* * *

!ATTENTION PLEASE #2!: I'm still wondering if I let Coulson rest in peace or if they just pretended to get the team to work together…any prompts or opinions?

And here we are, another chapter finished!

So sorry it took that long…but this chapter just didn't want to be written. No matter how I tried to approach the matter, somehow I always ended up writing a rough summery of relationships and hinted-at happening that occurred in the year that I skipped here.

So this is the version I go with now, a little intermission and jumping right into the problem in the end. I hope it works!

Hope, I got you curious, because we are closing in on the first confrontation…

I hope you al enjoyed! Reviews and constructive critic are always appreciated – 'specially this time!

Lots of Love, KandyKitten

P.S.: And to everybody who took the time to comment:

**Limmet**: Thank you so much! You'll have to wait a little 'til I give away what happened to Loki, though…

**MilkyWayGalaxy**: Well, there's going to be friendship at least^^ Thanks for the review!

**ELOSHAZZY**: Well, let's see how tangled this web is…Thanks for reviewing!

**Madrea Salazar Riddle**: So sorry you had to wait so long! Glad you liked it so far! Thanks for the review!

**Potkanka**: Well, I don't know about High School…but I get what you mean XD Well, I think Loki's just too proud to admit he feels guilty…and already so screwed in his mind Odin just doesn't know what to do with him, blind as he is. And you're right: There's going to be some more chapters 'til Loki can open up a little...but drastic is a matter of definition! (Just as teaser *g*)Well, anyways: Thank you so much for reading and reviewing; I'm always glad for the support!

**Shall be lifted Nevermore**: Thank you so much and so sorry you had to wait so long 'til I updated. Hope you stay in line!

**Serrure**: Thanks for the flowers…if you say that in English, too. Sorry to keep you waiting!

**ShadowAbsol13**: Do not worry, Loki is going to play a main role and appear soon… I fear you'll have to wait a little, but (SPOILER ahead) chapter 6 will be entirely focusing on him.

**Jaquelinelittle: **

1) When we go back to Asgard, I planned on bringing one or two (I'm not entirely sure about it by now) of them back to push the storyline along a little. They're not going to play a main role, but there will be some remarks.

2) Thank you, glad you liked it! To your question: I am sticking to the movie!verse here, and well, Thor behaved horrible at the movie's beginning but Odin still wanted to crown him Asgard's king, so he either didn't see or didn't want to see how vain and selfish his kids had become. The same with the former 'adventures' they had: Either, they were just not as bad, or he just didn't care. Well…I have to disagree a little, though: I don't think Loki was just forced to attack earth. I think he was pushed, but he also wanted to do something that hurt Thor and let him feel powerful. Loki was punished for attempting genocide on Jotunheim, too, but I just don't feel like they would try to send Jotun-memories, so I left them out.

Well wow, that was quite a text…well, thanks for your review and I hope you'll follow 'til the end!

Thanks, too the guests and everybody who put me on Favorites/Followers! I'm always glad for the support! I hope, you'll like it in the future, too!

Lots of Love,

KandyKitten


	5. Of Liars and Preparations

Hello, dear readers;

Long live democracy! Coulson will live^^ (and I'm honestly glad about it)

Well, here we go, following the Avengers on their way to their next meeting with Loki…

Have fun, people!

Most characters and some settings ©by Marvel

* * *

With the – by now dry – dark, mazy inside visible in the hole that had been cut into its chest, surrounded by flaps of thick, gray skin hanging down its sided like dirty sheets, the Chitauri should have looked like a rubber puppet, a special effect from a bad movie, but it didn't.

It was real, threatening even in its death, and not one of them thought it might be a joke, not even before the smell reached them, disinfectant and something oily, bitter and rotten at the same time.

Fury let them gawk for a full twenty seconds before marching round them, positioning himself between them and the Chitauri, tapping the steel table once.

Normally, his sheer presence was enough to command the attention of everybody he wanted to brief – well, usually _lecture_, admittedly – but maybe, the thing had moved a little at his tap, because suddenly, Bruce fingers were wringing so brutally his knuckles shone white, the repulsors glowed, weapons were half-drawn and Steve and Thor, the hand-on guys, actually each flinched half a step forward.

"It's…dead," he harshly informed them. "And we made sure it stays dead. So, to bring you up to date..."

He didn't get any farther, because the reservation broke the moment he spoke.

"Is that was I think it is?" Clint demanded, pointing at the partially dissected corpse. His finger and voice were steady, but there was anger overshadowing the usual deadpan-sarcasm.

Fury rolled his remaining eye, but he had the decency not to sigh.

"We…examined it and compared it to the data we had from the Chitauri that dropped dead here after you destroyed the mother ship. Even though there are - at least as far as we can tell - certain small differences…yes, it seems to be a Chitauri."

"And how did it get here?! I thought you were supervising the…the interdimensional borders or whatever the fuck you are calling it." Now, the anger was clearly overriding every form of humor, and Clint was visibly not the only one feeling that way.

"We…" Fury broke off again, searching for words, before growling: "We don't know. We did supervise every interworldly contact, everywhere, at every time. And I think you can guess what we found: the only contacts we did detect was _him _and _only_ him coming or leaving."

Fury let the hand he had used to gesture towards Thor sink again and shook his head. "We have formed a Unit to go over the worldwide readings again, but so far…"

"You form…wait, wait, wait!" Tony lifted one hand, pointing an accusing finger at Fury's chest. "_So far? _Just how long _did_ you know this thing is here?"

From one second to the other, the atmosphere in the room shifted.

The whole team had constantly been glancing at the corpse, as if fearing it would somehow come back alive. Now, everybody was staring at the director with a strange, suspecting wariness, not entirely void of aggression. Fury had lied to them one too many time for them not to be.

"Not long enough. I had time to call a few of my most..."

"Listen, I…I don't think I _want_ to know about your questioning techniques…" Bruce, who had been staying slightly behind, now slowly came forward. Apparently, he had gotten himself under control. There was no single trace of green in his eyes and his fingers were no longer trying to break each other.

"But you've had this guy for a little more than five weeks…and I think that's more than enough time to find out he wouldn't talk, you knew what he or, well, it was, at least for a week or two…"

Fury's expression was stony, but they knew him well enough to see a grimace by now.

"I know that we would not have been able to do much more than you and your guys did, you didn't necessarily need us to help you to try following that thing's tracks, so…."

He shrugged and put his fingertips together, a look full of innocent question plastered all over his face.

"…What changed?"

Despite everything, Tony felt a grin threatening to appear.

He could have hugged Bruce for this. No matter what equipment this man would mention next, he would buy it for him, hell, Tony would do it the rest of their lives just for the look he had just put on the Director's face.

"What changed is that there was another break-in." Fury did positively annoyed now. "We detected somebody trying to extract similar information as our friend on the table back there. He didn't get anything, but unfortunately, he also escaped."

"So there's another one," Natasha said, perfectly professional. "Or more."

"That's what we're fearing. And that's why we build this."

Fury walked straight through the room, towards the second door and threw it open. The Avengers followed, but slowly, torn between keeping an eye on the Chitauri and glowering at the Director.

The adjacent room was huge and bright, but it had a horrible impersonal flair with all the screen littering otherwise empty tables, and lining the plain walls, not to mention the dozens of Agents in either blue SHIELD uniforms or black suits.

Practically nobody paid attention to them, just two people separated themselves from the faceless mass of Agents buzzing around.

Hill looked reserved as always with her perfect hair and the stiff posture, back straight and hands clasped behind her back. The man walking in front of her was the embodiment of facelessness, with his regular height, face, haircut and well-tailored suit.

Considering what had happened to him about a year ago, Phil Coulson looked extremely well, even though he did walk a little…slumped, as he tried not to put too much pressure on his back.

"Agent Coulson!" For the first time today, Steve smiled. "I didn't expect you to be back in service already!"

"I'm not," Tony added, giving Coulson a shit-eating grin while patting on Steve's broad shoulder. "He's probably received some cell-recovery-treatment SHIELD developed extra for the case somebody got stabbed by an alien spear."

In fact, he was a little surprised. It had not looked well for Coulson, after all. But he was happy to see him back up on his feet – they all held no grudge at the agent.

Three weeks after beating the Chitauri, Fury had – after it had been clear that his agent would actually survive - finally come clean and told them that Coulson had survived Loki's attack. In fact, he had told them a few days after he had been able to breathe on his own again – still in a coma, but with good chances to wake up again.

It had come as a complete shock to all of them. Only his strict military training had kept Steve from punching Fury…military training Tony had not received.

He had been the only one to actually react physically, the rest of them were used to lying authorities, apparently, but not the only one to be royally pissed…even though they had been overjoyed to hear that their friend was still alive.

It had not done any good to their relationship with Fury, of course.

All of them, even Clint and Natasha, had drawn back from SHIELD after this episode. The trust between them, if it had ever really existed was practically broken – and this episode right now was not helping, either.

Coulson returned their greetings and offered them one of his thin smiles. "Well, according to the doctors, I should not be working, but I am not going to miss this."

"That's the attitude that'll win us the game!" Tony praised, shaking his fist like some overeager trainer. "Go on and show us your best work, player!"

"Mr. Stark, I'm desk-bound. I am _not_ unarmed."

Coulson led the chuckling Avengers over to his computer and let himself drop into the chair. It was an unfamiliar picture to see him sitting and suddenly, Tony worried a little – it was obvious that the wound had not perfectly healed by now.

He tapped a seemingly random sequence of keys and the screens lit up with charts and frameworks in different forms and colors.

"We looked for changes in the atmosphere, the magnetic fields, everything we know. But so far…nothing."

Tony frowned and switched on a very haughty tone. "If you have problems with abroad servers, you know I can change that."

We never have problems with abroad servers," Coulson said matter-of-factly. "But unfortunately, we don't know what we are looking for. We know practically nothing about the Chitauri."

"But we do know somebody who does," Steve suddenly piped up.

Everybody's eyes turned to him, some questioning, some suspecting…and then, understanding showed on everybody's faces. Clint looked particularly unhappy, his jaw and muscles tensed. Steve half-turned to look at Thor.

"Is there a chance we can talk to Loki?"

Thor suddenly looked uncomfortable, shifting a little. "Well, I do not know. I could ask, but nobody has talked to Loki after..."

"Wait…" Tony couldn't believe it. Thor, who had defended Loki even after taking Clint and Selvig, hadn't talked to him _at all_?

Well, thinking about it, Thor had only mentioned Loki twice since they knew him – once when they had asked him how he could bear Stark's constant jokes so easily and once when telling them (a little drunk, maybe) about how he had first landed on earth a few years ago - but otherwise…nothing.

So had he given up his crazy brother in the end?

"You haven't talked to him?" And then, a new thought hit him. "He isn't…do you have a death sentence in Asgard?"

"What…no, it is not like that!" Thor seemed honestly shocked. "Well, we do have a death sentence, but we are extremely careful with handing it out. Loki is alive still, it is just that…nobody has been allowed to visit, let alone talk to him since after the trial."

Now Steve looked a little disheartened. "So we probably can't have a few hours with him?"

Thor took a deep breath and shrugged. "If you want me to, I will ask if he can be transferred to SHIELD for a while, but I can promise you nothing. I do not have a say in this matter."

"We've got a situation here, so I suggest you ask!"

Fury, that sneaking, spying…spy. You really wouldn't expect a man of his size in a leather coat and a freaking eye-patch to be that good in listening in without being noticed, but somehow, all of them had missed him. Well, except for Natasha maybe.

Thor nodded. "I will."

"But you better find a safer place to hold him than last time," Clint growled into Fury's direction. His face was still expressionless, but he was tense as a bowstring, ready to strike.

In every other situation, Fury might have gotten angry, but now, he just let it pass. "I start searching for a good place to change into an interrogation room and you get going now. I think you know what to do next. And when you get word on Loki…" He pointed to the floor. "..first place to come."

The team hastily said goodbye Coulson and went without further fuss. As they passed the front doors of the faculty – a former military ground – Steve tapped Thor's forearm with the back of his hand. "When you get word on Loki…"

"I will come to you first."

"That's what we want to hear," Tony grinned and put his helmet back on, letting the faceplate snap shut "Good luck, Big Guy!"

So far, there was nothing more they could do, so they separated. But even while going their own ways, the feeling they had – this mixture of anticipation, dread, anxiety and excitement - was exactly the same.

* * *

From the outside, the abandoned factory building looked dirty, rusty and broken, a place that would host nothing but mold, snakes and rats as big as cats. Thick, high walls, topped with layers of rusty, but still mean-looking barbed wire surrounded the whole place. All in all, the factory was a perfect setting for a horror movie. A nobody-will-hear-you-scream place, as Tony immediately labeled it.

Absolutely nothing gave away the cluster of highly trained agents and most modern tech hidden inside.

After SHIELD had overtaken the factory, they had left their mark on it. Every piece of glass was bulletproof, there was surveillance everywhere and every single of the white walls in this maze was strong enough to withstand bombs.

And this was the place they had decided to hold Loki in.

Thor had come back almost two weeks ago, announcing that they could question Loki if they found a safe place to lock him into - and with the limitation, that, should he escape, he was their problem and theirs to catch.

The preparations had started immediately.

They had found themselves a laboratory, consisting of two rooms separated by a heavy door and a (now Hulk-proof) window pane, allowing to watch the locked-in test subject inside the smaller, door- and windowless room form a safe distance.

By now, there were more cameras than anywhere else. The walls, floor and ceiling of the quarter of the smaller room farthest from the pane was lined with thick, Hulk-proof glass. Somebody with a steady hand had etched the magical-in-some-way runes Thor had brought along into it.

A heavy steel frame with an inserted pane stood against the wall. As soon as the artist would be finished covering it in runes, too, the construction would be put into position, reaching from one wall to the other, thus completely closing the cage.

If that wasn't enough to keep the crazed demigod inside…

"And you are sure that will work without a door?" Hill asked once again. Annoyed, Tony let his head fall back against the wall. From the corner of his eyes, he could see the exasperation on Thor's face, too.

Sure, all of them had problems with accepting magic seemingly going against physical rules and all of them had voiced their worries to the Thunder God – everybody but Clint who, since he had heard that he would meet Loki again, had become uncharacteristically silent – but by now, it had become annoying.

"It will," Thor half-snapped, not in a tone he would usually use talking to a women.

"But how..."

"It's magic, lady." Tony told her before Thor could lose his patience and deep-fry something…or someone. "Accept, don't ask."

Hill looked affronted, but, thankfully, shut up. The fact that not even Steve jumped in to defend the woman's honor showed just how frayed their nerves were.

Ridiculous, considering it would be one locked-in man against a few dozen agents and a team of superheroes, but still…

The man sketching runes put the acid away and stood up. Faces tense, the Avengers watched the workers starting to shove the frame over, carefully measuring the right position. The edges met with a soft click.

Immediately, the second team of workers hurried over and fastened the steel frame against the walls.

The team threw each other glances, half-assuring, half-checking. They were as good as ready.

In less than fifteen minutes, they would face Loki again.

* * *

Hello, everybody!

Thanks for reading, my fine friends! More than 50 followers…yay! Thank you!

Hope you liked it so far…even though I'm still stuck in building up the settings.

Next time, we will finally find out what Loki has been doing the past thirteen month…and then, the meeting in chapter seven!

It might take a little, though. It's exam-time in my university right now and I'm quite stressed, actually.

Still, I hope you will stay with me when we leave the build-ups and come to some action!

As always, Reviews and constructive critic is appreciated!

Lots of Love,

KandyKitten

P.S. To every reviewer:

**Constance Bonacieux**: Thanks for reviewing! So, Coulson lives! But I'm not giving away what the Chitauri want too fast….

**Madrea Salazar Riddle**: Thanks for the review! I'm glad the Chitauri-Story is working, I was almost fearing it would get old, but well…I fear you have to wait a little before I give away what they want, though…..

**Shall be lifted Nevermore**: You're welcome! Thanks for reading and reviewing!

**Angrbodagiantess**: Glad you liked it and thank you for the review! I hope you are not too disappointed that I didn't wrote the big "He lied to us", but I didn't find the time for it. I might still get back to it later if I find a fitting page. Anyways, thanks for reviewing!

**Potkanka**: Thank you so much! I hoped I would get the characters right, especially those who don't have much screen time, but you are easing a big worry here^^ I liked your idea with a desk-bound Coulson as you see *g*. About Fury…ha , yeah, this 'smartass' was a litte much, but I kind of didn't find another way for Fury to lose control…well, anyways, thank you for reviewing and I hope you stay on line!

Thank all of you and keep on!

Lots of Love,

KandyKitten


	6. Loki

Hello there!

Wow, faster than I thought! And a lot longer…

So, without further talk, I'll let you follow Loki through his new torments. Enjoy!

Lots of Love,

KandyKitten

Most characters and settings ©by Marvel.

* * *

When Loki woke up, for a small second he could pretend that everything was all right.

He lay face-down on a bed, cheek nuzzled into a pillow and he could actually feel the edge of a light duvet covering him against his neck. He could tell that it was not _his_ bed - it was a little too hard – but for one moment, it was like waking up in a strange place when on some quest and any minute now somebody would snore or dash in to wake him…

And then he moved. Just slightly, but it was enough.

Searing pain shot through his back, so brutally and hot as if somebody had dropped a flaming blanket on him. Groaning in surprise, he buried his face and fingers in the pillow and waited until the pain had almost subsided, just concentrating on a few spots.

The places the torturers had burned him. So much for pretending.

This time, he was expecting the pain, but even though he moved as gingerly as he could, he still had to grit his teeth as he sat up to have a look at his new surroundings.

Just, there was practically nothing to look at.

The bed – or more, cot – he was sitting on stood directly against a wall and, by the look of it, was the only piece of furniture in here. The room itself was roughly quadrangular, nothing but plain grey stone surrounding him - no windows, no door. No source of light, either, but it was not entirely dark either, more like a greyish twilight.

On second look, there was something else. On the floor, roughly four feet away, stood a huge; bulbous jug filled with water.

Seeing it, Loki suddenly was very aware how dry his mouth was, the sickening taste of bile and copper on his tongue. He was not sure if his legs would already carry him, but he wanted the water.

Mindful of his back, he swung his legs over the bed's edge, set still bare feet on the cold stone and carefully pushed himself into a standing position. His knees still were weak, but somehow, he managed an inelegant stumble, thankfully dropping down next to the pitcher.

The water was fresh and cold and he had downed the first few sips greedily before the taste caught up with him.

Carefully, Loki sniffed the water…and there was something strange. He took another small sip, this time keeping it in his mouth. There was something wrong with the water, an unnaturally bitter taste...

It could be something to suppress the pain, it could be something to keep him asleep, it could be poison, it could by vitamins, to Loki, it all meant the same: Odin had put something into the only source of liquid he had.

He was close to screaming and even closer to throwing the offending object across the room, but Loki kept himself under control. The fact that he was still dizzy with sleep helped a lot - he was sure that he would not survive the humiliation if the pitcher did not hit the wall if he tried to throw it.

Still, Loki shivered with anger. Once again, Odin had just taken a decision from him, forced him to bend to his every whim.

This time, it would not work.

Loki began to push himself up when the smell of sweat and his own, burnt flesh hit him, his skin itched everywhere. Disgustedly, he looked down at himself and pushed his sleeve up.

Somebody had changed him into fresh clothes while he had been unconscious – grey, loose-fitting pants and a plain, V-necked tunic – but the dried blood and sweat still stuck on him, on his skin, his hair. He felt himself getting sick again…and then, his eyes found the jug.

Maybe the water would serve a purpose, after all.

It was not the right time for shame. Slower than he would have liked, Loki stripped down and cleaned the wounds, careful not to waste a drop. When he could no longer bear the stinging, he used the rest of the water to wash his hair.

When he was done, Loki felt better than he had expected. He got back up to his feet and made his way over to the wall next to the cot, carelessly kicking the empty jug aside just to make a point.

Letting his fingertips glide over the rough wall, he turned left and counted his steps until he had reached the cot's other end, then he stood there, eyes helplessly searching the dull room, roughly four by five meters of plain grey stone.

What next?

* * *

He was, by now, horribly bored. It had been weeks, as far as he could tell in this never changing environment, and there was absolutely nothing to do.

Loki sat on the bed, staring on his fingers. He focused, concentrated – here, the lack of distraction actually helped – visualized the picture…and let his hand flick forward and upward. He had not expected anything to happen, but he still could not shove away the slight frustration.

He had found out after the first fifteen minutes that his magic still was bound, even without the chains. Not even his illusions worked, but he still tried sometimes.

It kept his mind from wandering where he did not want to go and without any stimulation, it did too easily.

When he did not guard his thought, memories resurfaced, memories of shared laughs and laughs that were less shared than forced. The argument he had had with his…_Thor's_ friends, the one he had had with Odin. Falling through the broken Bifröst, being thrown in every direction, helplessly drifting before landing on a strange, unknown planet, bruised and hurt and desperate.

Meeting the Other, thee months later. Meeting Thanos. Leading this army….being the civilians.

Loki shuddered, jumped up and began to walk back and forth, like an animal in a cage. His hands pushed his hair back, that, since he had washed it, had been unruly, falling into his face and over his shoulders in a way that he was not used to.

The fast movements did not hurt too badly anymore, but by now, he wished they would. The pain had been a good method to ground himself.

Loki stopped dead in his tracks and looked at the ceiling.

"Have you run out of ideas how to torment me?"

After weeks of silence, his own voice was shockingly loud. He grimaced in surprise, was almost thankful when the echo was gone…but he was too stubborn to stop.

"Or have your magicians exhausted themselves so thoroughly they still need time to recover before you can go on with your _punishment_?"

This time, he was prepared for the sudden noise. The answer he had hoped for did not come, though. There was nothing but silence and dull twilight.

"You will pay for this," he said, sounding thoughtful. "And when you have admitted what you have done before all of those haughty, stupid hypocrites, they will pay, too."

Darkness flooded the floor and the walls. Darkness with flickering lights, colors flashing by…the Bifröst. He was falling again…but he still felt stone under his feet. Now that they could no longer invade his mind, Odin…

The weapon's vault appeared on the walls. Odin stood on the stairs, staff in his hand, looking down on him….

_Thinking_, Loki thought. _I am thinking about it and then…._

He closed his eyes and thought of nothing in particular, just fragments of spells and stories, melodies he was not sure where he had heard them. When he opened his eyes, the grey was back.

He would have to guard himself even more carefully from now on, Loki understood.

The only thing that could torment him here was his own mind.

Loki nodded to himself, making a silent promise. Nightmares, he could not control. But his own thoughts would not run away with him. Not as long as he still was breathing.

* * *

Loki had lost every sense for time and, in his eyes, a good part of his dignity.

In this all-time twilight, he never knew when it was night, so he lay down whenever he felt tired, but nightmares kept vexing him. He had always been able to suppress screams when he jolted awake, but after, he always just lay there, staring up at the ceiling, unable to find sleep for hours.

If it had been really bad, he stood up, walking circles in this tiny cage, sometimes trying to go through the motions his combat teachers had shown him.

He always had to stop soon, because he could not bear the thought of somebody seeing him fighting air like a child….a child with not even a stick to pretend having a sword.

And then there was the food.

Every now and then, there was a tray with food appearing right in the middle of the room. And the trey even held _good_ food, the kind of bread and flesh that was served at the banquets.

Loki's first reaction to it had been "Feed your scraps to your wolves, as I will never sink low enough to crawl for them."

He had been angry. Did Odin really think he could force him to eat leftovers off the floor like a dog?

Still, food came – monthly? Every second month? Without any time pattern? – anyway, it had come four times and every time, he had kept himself from eating. Until last time, that was.

Despite everything, last time he had taken a few bites, not much, but it was enough to make him feel disgusted with himself. He had been kneeling there feeding on what had most likely been the scraps from Odin's table.

He had sworn himself never to give in again, so when he felt the next meal being delivered, he did not even look up.

After what felt like half a day – it was two hours only, but Loki was tired and angry and frustrated – he stood up from where he had been leaning against a wall.

"Did it please you to see me kneeling?" he asked. "Did you laugh about how poetic it was? Did you feel satisfaction about seeing me taking my rightful position? Then let me tell you, Allfather, you will never see it again. In fact, I think one day, I will see you kneeling. I think one day, I will see everybody kneeling."

An image flashed through his mind, a crowd sinking to their knees before him, their eyes full of fear…and that image was enough.

Once again, the walls flared. Colors broke the dull grey, sound and smell were next, so overwhelming he stumbled away from them until he hit the wall.

There was the girl with the pink and yellow dress, laying at his feet. He could see every hair, every burn, every scratch, but he was enough of an expert to recognize and illusion when he saw one.

He rose his gaze and saw cruel things. Personal things. Arguments. Thanos grinning. Midgard. Odin. Frigga. Thor.

"Stop," he whispered tonelessly, but there was no mercy.

So it was not enough that the pain and fear and disappointment haunted him in his sleep, controlled his thoughts, no, it had to haunt him even with living imagines, with so much realism. It never left him alone.

Desperation weighed down on him so heavily he felt tears threatening to fall. He could not sleep, he could not talk to anybody, he could not use his magic to distract himself, he could only sit here and think of all this horror…and now, this.

Automatically, he raised his hand and tried to fire a streak of energy at the far wall hoping it would tear the imagery apart, but what released itself from his fingers was a dagger of pure ice.

Loki stared at the shards, imagines suddenly forgotten. The hand with the now obvious blue hue was still stretched out, as far as possible. His face showed pure loathing and disgust…

…and a tiny bit of curiosity.

* * *

Loneliness was becoming a real problem.

Loki sat on the bed once again, staring at the wall with unfocused, glassy eyes. His knees were pulled to his chest, underarms resting on them with his hands loosely hanging down. The long fingers of his right hand nimbly played with a piece of ice.

It was not perfect, but it was recognizable as a blade.

After his accidental success, he had started to test, and, to his surprise, found out that now that his magic continuously trying to change his body into that of an Asgardian was gone, his natural instincts were coming back to him.

As the color shift that almost wanted him to tear his own skin off whenever he saw it was a little more under control – by now, only his hands took on the despised blue - he had practiced with more interest and less (not without) self-loathing.

It kept his thoughts from wandering where he did not want them to go.

The outside world, for example. The times when he had had a brother and something akin to friends (had thought of them as friends, stupid, sentimental child that he had been).

When he had had contact with other living things.

Sighing, Loki shifted and focused on the blade in his fingers. His hard features twisted into a grimace of disgust and he threw it to the floor where it shattered into hundreds of glittering shards.

The sound hurt his head. He wanted somebody to talk to him.

There had been no more pictures on the walls lately, not even when he thought of Midgard. There was nothing, just himself, his thoughts and his nightmares and he did not care.

He should probably worry about this listlessness, but he did not have it in himself.

Lately, he did not have the strength for anything. Since he had been locked down here, his physic health had suffered as much as his mental.

He could not concentrate anymore. He could barely walk two rounds in his cell without getting dizzy. Sometimes, he felt so heavy he could not even stand up. Not that he wanted to, mostly.

Between his fingers, a blade appeared, shifting, becoming a curved knife, a miniature sword, a throwing dagger.

He just wished he were not so alone.

* * *

There was a breaking point for everybody and Loki reached his completely surprising.

One day, he awoke feeling desperate and restless and just overall….uncomfortable and when he opened his eyes and saw this grey not-color he felt something ugly raise its head.

He always felt unwelcomed feelings and thoughts scratching at the walls he had put around his mind, but they had never crashed against them like now. He looked around, trying to find distraction…

…the room was so small, smaller than ever, dark and tiny and he _could not breathe_ ….

Insanity was lurking just around the corner and he had no intention to let it overpower him.

Loki jumped to his feet, touched the wall and turned left. He slowly walked along the wall, from corner to corner like an animal in a cage checking its barriers, carefully measuring and counting his steps.

No, the room was just as big as it had been…..yesterday evening? Yesterday noon? Had it even_ been_ yesterday?...whenever he had fallen asleep. Not smaller. Not by one inch.

He stood at his starting point, breathing a little too fast for his own liking. Here he was, halfway to hyperventilating over _nothing at all_. The Allfather would be pleased to see him like this, not only strolling back and forth like an animal as usually, but now getting hysterical, too.

His fingers shifted, trying to create a dagger, but today, it did nothing to ease the stress he felt. If possible, he felt even worse. He threw the half-done thing down, smashing it on the _uglyboringdull_ grey stone

For a few heartbeats, Loki just stood there with his chest heaving, staring through the veil his hair created in front of his eyes, feeling restless and angry.

He had to do something. Find distraction.

There was nothing to do.

He hissed, unconsciously moving, walking around, going through balance exercises, but everything just seemed to rile him. Especially the fact that they immediately wore him out.

The fact that he was losing his physical and mental strength was not new to him, but by now, it was a worryingly fast process and Loki had only one explanation for it: Odin must be draining his strength.

Loki had never – and, to be fair, Odin had neither – heard of deprivation. The Aesir had never bothered to study the impacts torture had on the victims as long as the results were satisfying, so he had no possibility to know that the solitude in itself, could damage a prisoner's body as much as their mind.

All Loki could know was that he was degenerating faster and faster.

Angrily, he walked back to his bed, threw himself on it face-down. His fingers clenched and he turned his head to bury his face into the pillow, trying to suppress the oncoming storm. He would not give Odin the satisfaction of seeing him unravel. He would not break down. They would never see him break down…he would never see him breaking down…

…if he could even see him.

Blue eyes, bright shimmers in the twilight, opened to stare at the grey wall.

The magic in the walls was meant to contain him, tie his own magic and to veil him from worried eyes. He had just assumed that Odin would be watching him, but what if he did not? What if…

No.

_No, it is not possible_, he thought. _Odin said that he needed to learn a lesson…he had also said I would have time to think about it…he did not say that it would lead to redemption….but, no, mot…__**Frigga **__would not allow it, Thor would not allow it…_

But both of them had no say when it came to decisions like these. Odin was king. He decided how to punish his son and he certainly decided how to treat the monster he had taken as hopefully useful souvenir, Loki knew that much.

If Odin had said so, he would never see light again.

_I will never see light again._

He rolled over and jumped to his feet in a fluent motion, just stood there panting, his hands opening and closing rapidly before he turned his blue eyes to the ceiling and began to speak in a trembling voice that was dancing between the urges to scream or break.

"So, that is it?" he asked. "I will just sit here until I can not take it anymore and end my own life? This is your grand plan for me? You could not break me, so you just place me between your other stolen treasures, label me another trophy and speak of me no longer?"

No answer.

Loki was a little unsure if he really had expected one, all his rants had been pointless so far, but the utter silence disturbed him. He did love monologs, but he had never liked one-sided conservations.

"Is that a 'yes'? A 'no'? Are you so disgusted with me that you cannot even answer me anymore? Have you tired of calling me your son so thoroughly that you will not even tell me if it will be my fate to sit here for the rest of all eternity?"

Loki stopped, panting and shivering. Straps seemed to tighten around his chest and his muscles tensed. He felt droplets of cold sweat gathering at his brow, between his shoulder blades, his palms, glittering and sticky and unfamiliar.

"So, that is it then?" he went on. The echo, almost unbearably loud in the usually perfectly quiet room, multiplied the tremor in his voice but Loki did not hear it. His head and ears seemed to be filled with white noise, erasing every rational thought, tying his silver tongue.

"Are you watching me? Do you even still care if I am still alive or already dead? Did you ever care?"

Nothing…and then, Loki simply lost it.

"So you have me risen as Asgard's joke, then you cast me aside like a bastard, torture me and now make me crawl like a mutt until I end my own existence or until you forget to feed me? That is the justice of the great king Odin?

"But not with me. I will not bow to you. I will not give up. I will have all of you pay for this. In the end, this mutt, this monster, will stand over all of you. _Over all the nine realms__**. I will take what I deserve!**_"

He hoped, actually hoped that would attract attention, but apparently, he was just talking to air.

Loki felt panic overtaking him entirely and to stop it, just to stop it, he tried to recall the euphoria he had felt when he had stood on the mortal's tower, seeing war unfold.

That was when, for the first time since months, his memories were projected again.

They were everywhere. The ceiling, the walls, the floor, splintered and overlapping, a mirror of his fractured mind. For the first time since he had been in here, Loki cried out in horror.

He stumbled backwards, tried to focus, tried to do something, anything to make it stop, but it did not work. Nothing worked, he could just stand there, helplessly watching.

"Stop." He barely processed he was speaking. "Stop this. If you want me dead, stop tormenting me. S-stop...STOP! STOP IT!"

Still, there was no reaction. Loki's back hit the wall. He did not hear himself whispering "please".

He was close to saying sorry. To admit (to Odin and himself) that he was lonely and he wanted out and he regretted it, that guilt was weighing down on him…even if Odin truly could not hear him, maybe Heimdall could.

But then he thought of the mortal telling him a list of people he had _"pissed off"_ and thought_: You have forgotten the all-seeing gatekeeper_ and that made him laugh hysterically.

Half laughing, half crying, Loki sank down at the wall, pulled his knees up, set his elbows on them and buried his face in his arms. No, Heimdall would let him rot in here, no matter what he said. A part of him could understand that. The part that thought he was already getting what he deserved.

The rest of him swore revenge.

It took him a long time to stop laughing and even longer to stop crying.

* * *

About one month later, there was another shift in the room's magic.

Loki, who had been cowering in the corner where he had sunken down after his outbreak, raised his head and looked around with tired eyes.

The room moved. It was being transported somewhere, walls and bed and himself included, he realized.

He did not know where, but it did not matter to him. Not really.

Slowly, Loki stood up and straightened his clothes. He stroked his hair back, combed his fingers through it until he was sure that it did no longer look disheveled. He wiped his eyes and cheeks clear, in short: he made himself look presentable.

Maybe he had lost himself a while ago. Yes, he had cried, screamed, got close to begging.

But he _was not broken_.

Or at least, he would not appear broken.

Loki sunk down on the bed, taking a loose posture, his back and the back of his head resting against the wall. Behind closed eyelids, he noticed coming brightness.

He was ready for everything.

* * *

Hello, all my dear readers who got this far!

This was the longest chapter yet, I hope it wasn't too lengthy…

I know, this lock-him-away-idea is not the newest, but I think, in the comics, Loki was locked in a tree for a while and in mythology, a giant who caught him locked him in a small box for month, until he agreed to send Thor over so that the giant could kill him, so there is a real background to that idea ^^

As last time, I don't know how fast my updates will come. In two weeks, I'll have more time.

Hope, you enjoyed!

Reviews and constructive critic are always appreciated!

Lots of Love,

KandyKitten

P.S. To all of you who reviewed:

**Limmet: **Thanks for reviewing. Hope, I fulfilled your anticipation!

**Angrbodagiantress: **Well, I always wonder when they just push Loki into some prison cell and he can't get out, so I thought I'd do it a little different…glad, you liked it! Thank you for the review!

**Potkanka:** Questions over questions…but I'm not giving anything away! Well, yeah, Loki won't be in the best shape ever and he'll have to make some decisions…The Fury Situation…I might even find time to resolve that, just wait and see! Anyways, thank you for reviewing!

**ShadowAbsol13: **As promised: One Chaper just about Loki…and now, the meeting! Thank you for the review!

**Madrea Salazar Riddle:** Thank you for the flowers! I hope you liked this chapter as well!


	7. Questions Over Questions

Hello, my dear readers!

So, here we are again, faster than I thought, actually….

This, again, is a bit longer, so please, take your time and enjoy!

Lots of Love,

KandyKitten

Most characters and settings ©by Marvel

* * *

The cage was Hulk-tested (from the outside only, but they had felt better doing it) and declared ready.

While they had been scattered all across the room before, the Avengers now stood up, forming a loosed line in the middle of the room that shielded Hill, Coulson and most of the men behind them. Those me, armed guards SHIELD had provided, watched them, nervously checking their guns.

Tony didn't understand why they would bother with _guns_. Bullets would bounce off both the glass and Loki, after all.

"Well, I'd say we're ready now," Fury said, positioning himself between them and the cell.

They had – even though it had taken Thor a while to agree on the terms – decided that Fury would be the only one doing the talking. Even though Fury and he_ had_ met before, Loki had had grater troubles with the others and they didn't want to make it personal – well, more personal than it already was.

But even though they had agreed to fade into the background, they had refused to leave entirely. The fear that Loki would find a way to get away was too high.

"Time to get our prisoner in there."

Clint's bow rose and finally, his voice gained back a little of his usual deadpan-sarcasm. "By the way, how exactly are we going to let your people know…."

The cage's rims suddenly blazed with white and golden light. Everybody froze, staring at the phenomenon and then…

"Take position!"

…everybody jumped to comply. The door opened and the armed men split up, some taking position at the corners behind the Avengers, replacing Hill and Coulson who left, the former holding the door open for the latter, some following outside.

The rims of the pane darkened, suddenly looking grayish and rough. Before their eyes, the semi-darkness spread out over the cell, always closely following the golden shimmer, cutting it off from view.

Natasha stared wide-eyed, but her body was tensed and unmoving, steady fingers resting on her gun "Thor, what's happening there?"

"The cell. They're transferring Loki here by transferring the room he is being held in and obliterating it afterwards."

"Why so complicated? Why not just him?" Steve asked, never tearing his gaze from the former-glass-now-massive-stone-wall.

Thor's fingers nervously danced over Mjölnir's handle. "I do not know. The finer workings of sorcery are Loki's specialty. I can only guess that they do not want to give Loki even a second outside of a magic-suppressing room."

"I wholeheartedly agree," Clint growled through clenched teeth.

In front of them, the stone began to vanish, first patches, than everything became transparent, allowing them insight into their cell. First, it was like looking through a gossamer-thin, gray curtain into a very dimly lit room, then the light faded entirely, together with the last remains of stone.

The cell was darker than before, apparently, the light bulbs behind the glass had not survived the brush with alien magic, but the bright shine of the remaining neon lights was enough to make the interior visible.

Parallel to the back wall – it was just bright enough to make out the outlines - now stood a simple cot with a slim figure sitting on it. He was leaned back against the wall, right leg pulled to his chest, one forearm loosely resting on the knee, the other hand hanging limply in his lap. His face was practically hidden by shadows.

Compared to Thor, Loki had looked slender, but still, Tony had been looking for a broad-shouldered, tall man, for dark leather, steel and gold, so he didn't recognize the man on the bed.

For a moment, he was sure that Loki had managed to escape, put some poor guy in there as substitute and just left and every second this man would jump up and ask for help. A sharp curse was already on his lips…

…and then, the man leaned forward and light fell on familiar, pale and sharp features.

Loki looked at them without any expression until he recognized them. There was a flicker of surprise on his face, breaking into a wide smile, every bit as deranged as they remembered it.

"Why, Thor! I assumed you would be waiting for me, but Mr. Fury and the rest of your mortal team…I have to admit, I did not expect to see them again so soon."

"I would have loved to spend the rest of my life without ever seeing your white face ever again, believe me." Fury obviously tried to keep his tone as easy as Loki had, but he could not keep the aggression out. "Unfortunately, I still have some questions to ask you."

Loki's brows rose. "Questions?" He gaze flickered over all their faces, then returned to Fury. "And what_ exactly_ is it that you would want to know of me?"

It was eerie. Not only did this man look like he was perfectly enjoying himself, he also managed to sound as if they were sitting around a coffee table…but something rubbed Tony the wrong way. Something was wrong…even more than last time, he just couldn't put his finger on it.

He was not sure if that should worry or annoy him.

Apparently, Fury had settled on annoyance, his tone got sharper with every word, at least. "I want to know everything about your alien buddies. And by everything I mean: _Everything_."

The smirk faded. For as moment, his face was kind of empty, then he chuckled...and moved.

Loki rose from the bed in one slow, eerily fluent movement, just by shifting his weight. The moment his feet touched the floor, he started to saunter towards them with the perfect control and elegance of a predatory cat.

The walk sure showed a lot of self-confidence, but the closer Loki got, the more Tony thought that he should have stayed in the distance.

Last time they had met, he had looked tall and broad, but now that he Loki was barefoot and Tony was wearing his boots, they stood eye to eye. When his slender hand came up to stroke long, now un-gelled hair back, the loose-fitting sleeve fell down to his elbow, showing how lean he actually was, especially compared to guys like Steve or Thor.

As long as he had been sitting back at the wall, it had been impossible to estimate him, but from up close, it was clear how much of Loki's aura was nothing but show and costume.

Loki stopped a few steps away from the glass, staying out of the brightest light. His eyes flickered over their faces, hanging on Thor for a moment, who shifted uncomfortably, finally returning to Fury.

And then, he grinned again and suddenly, despite the clothes that were basically pajamas hanging loosely around his slender frame, despite the hair falling around his face and shoulders like it had been styled for a shooting, his insane, dangerous aura was back.

"And why would you suddenly be so interested in the Chitauri?"

Fury literary growled at him. "Just so we're clear. I am the one asking questions around here."

Loki nodded and raised his hands in a placating manner, but his voice was mocking. "Of course you are, Mr. Fury. But you have failed to ask me a question yet."

Fury looked as if he wanted to pull his gun and empty the whole magazine right into his face.

"Fine," he growled. "So, what do your buddies want here?"

Loki cocked his head aside, ignoring the hair falling forward over his shoulder. "You come to me with those questions after so much time?"

"I thought we had cleared out who was asking questions to whom," Fury spat at Loki, but the god just grinned at him, eyes flashing and in this second all of them understood: Loki would not answer.

"So you don't want to talk?"

Loki gave a small, short laugh. "What reason would I have?"

There was a change in Fury that none of them had ever seen before. His face and voice suddenly went cold and hard, absolutely merciless. "I think you don't understand the position you are in. Once again, _boy, _you and your friends put me in a defensive position and once again, you are at my mercy…with the difference that now, I will not hesitate to use that."

Fury pointed at Loki's chest and his voice became even colder. "You can bet your ass that I will _make_ you talk."

Loki reacted suddenly and more violent than any of them would have expected.

His face fell, becoming hard and humorless. Seemingly with the speed of light, he crossed the distance between them and struck out, letting not only his fist, but his whole right forearm connect with the glass. The frame creaked ominously, but the steel and the rivets withstood.

Still, all of them flinched back and hastily drew their weapons, one of the guards even dropped onto one knee to have a safer stand. It was almost embarrassing.

Loki's smirk came back as he took the scene in. He hit against the pane again, but this time softly, barely touching the glass, but still, the Avenger's hands tightened around their weapons again.

"So scared…." Loki murmured, voice soft, but carrying. "So scared of one man in a cage, but still you try to threaten…your haughtiness, Mr. Fury, knows no borders."

_Cage?_ Tony thought. _Yeah, cage is right, but 'man'?_

Now that Loki was closer, Tony could see this…whatever-it-was, that made Loki look even more dangerous and unpredictable even better than before. He was not sure what it was, just that his smirks were wider but hollow, his muscles taut and there were hard, tense lines around his eyes – eyes that never quite held still, flickered this way and that, never resting one somebody or something longer than five seconds.

There was something seriously wrong with him.

"I ain't haughty," Fury said. "I'm confident. There is something that can cut you and I will find it." He slowly retreated, giving the Avengers a sign to leave the room and discuss their next action. "And when I have found it, you'll wish you never met me."

With that, he wheeled around and rushed out of the room, tearing the heavy steel door open so harshly it hit the wall. The Avengers took a moment to glare at their prisoner. Next to him, Tony could feel Thor shifting. It must be torturous for him not to speak up, but he did follow them out…not without locking gazes with Loki, of course.

The younger god still stood there, strange, teeth-baring grin in place, one arm pressed against the pane, the other hand - balled to a fist – quivering at his side.

He looked as if he was about to snap.

Tony was no nervous man, but he was worried what would happen when he did.

* * *

When he felt the flash of magic subsiding, Loki slowly opened his eyes against the light.

He fully expected to see Odin towering above him, maybe Thor, too…or at least Odin's attack dogs, ready to drag him into the throne room or back to the dungeons.

The light blinded him and the first thing he saw was black leather. He already was preparing himself to be hauled up when his eyes got used to the brightness and he recognized the human leader he had met on Midgard.

Surprised, Loki stared at him, then let his gaze flicker over the other people standing right outside…well, wherever 'here' was…and found Thor standing at the mortal's right, a few feet behind him.

He was unsure what to think of this. Was this some new trick? A hallucination?

Even if it was, Loki had been silent for so long he could not withstand. He let a grin show on his face just for the sake of it and greeted Thor – the only one who he was maybe not imagining. He half-expected Thor to ask him what he was talking about.

All the bigger was his surprise when it was the mortal who answered him. Wanting to ask..

"Questions?" he repeated, looking back at Thor to see if his expression changed – his broth…the man was a horrible liar – but there was nothing. They all looked hard and tense and…real.

But that could not be. The Chitauri…was Odin doing this because he hoped he would tell the mortals what he knew about them? It sounded almost possible, Odin torturing a bad conscience into him and then question him.

Acting rashly, Loki stood up and closed in on the group. If this was nothing but an illusion, he would probably be able to tell from close up. Unfortunately, the closer he got, the more he became aware that, illusion or not, he was, once again, the only one in the room who was practically not clothed.

Also, he was all too aware that without the heavy boots, shoulder- and chest pieces gaining him a few inches in every direction, he was smaller than half and slimmer than almost every man out there.

Illusion or not, he felt nervous.

There were so many of them. It was confusing. He was unsure where to look at first, what source of light and sound was important and after the endless twilight in the cell, after being left without color and sound for month, even the dimmed light seemed so bright and even breathing was loud…

If they were real….if Odin and his men were hiding behind those illusions…

He knew that it was self-confidence, conviction and clarity that would puzzle them, anger them, would maybe cause them to make mistakes. He had none of that right now.

Luckily, he could even lie with his body.

Loki forced himself into a loose, confident posture, kept the grin in place and asked: "And why would you suddenly be so interested in the Chitauri?"

He hoped it sounded like "I know this is implausible.", but it did not end the play. No, the mortal just went on in the same, harsh, gruff tone he had had last time.

It did not mean anything…or did it?

Loki felt more confused than ever before, but he decided that he would not let anything slip. He would give nobody this satisfaction, he would play his defiant part. (He also enjoyed it to talk to somebody again, no matter if real or not, but he would die before admitting that).

And then, the mortal dared to threaten him.

He still had not decided if they were fake or reality, but Loki got angry. After all of this, after the month spent alone, lonely, longing for contact, after the days spent in those memories, all the fear and pain and horror, after the hours hanging in chains from the dungeon's ceiling, wanting to scream…that mortal _dared threaten him_!

Without thinking, Loki threw himself forward, let his arm crash against the glass that was now surrounding him, putting his full weight into the blow...and saw something interesting.

They flinched, some of them back, some of them forward to meet him should the pane break. They grabbed their weapons.

Odin's men were not that good at acting.

His eyes flickered over them as if on their own account, swiping over their faces, trying to estimate their expressions. He kept talking, but in fact, he was trying to decide: Were they real or were they just fake?

He simply could not be sure…and he hated it. Hated the way he felt helpless, hated the knowledge that he was maybe talking to nothing but air, hating not to know if he had finally lost his mind and slipped into insanity.

He did not react to further threats, so the mortals left the room, Thor not without looking back at him with this stupid, begging, sad eyes, and left Loki to his own thoughts.

When they were gone, Loki looked around, examining his new cage, but his heart was not behind it. Deep inside, he was still busy with thinking about this threat.

_I will find something that cuts you._

Odin had every tool to cut him – and do more, a lot more – in body and mind. Was he that sophisticated…or was this real? Had the mortals asked to question him about the Chitauri? But why, if not…

If not they had new problems with them.

Loki stood there, in the middle of the room, staring into nothingness. From the outside, he was calm, but his thoughts – wild and uncontrolled, but finally, _finally_ focused on a problem again – were racing. If the Chitauri were here, then because they had been ordered. If they were coming here, then Thanos…

He wheeled around and stalked back to one of the walls, hastily controlling the runes. They were clearly improvised, but very meticulous and well done. There were no gaps he could use to break through the spell.

That was bad. If Thanos came and he still was in this cage, locked, with no possibility to escape…

Loki shuddered, remembered that he was probably being watched and walked swiftly back to the bed. He dropped down, leaned himself against the wall and hid his trembling hands by folding them in his lap.

If this was an illusion, he could just play along until Odin got bored and stopped. If not…

Then he had to find a way out of here.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The mortals had given him a chance to escape last time. This time, he had nobody on the outside, but they…

_They are just mortals_, Loki thought. _If they really want to torture me for the information they want, they have to get in here. And Thor, he is predictable and easy to manipulate. They will give me a chance to flee. _

Loki's eyes opened and focused on the fogged window behind the glass on the other end of the room, the window he was sure they were standing behind, talking about him.

His muscles quivered. He wanted to jump up and yell at them, call them back, but he sat perfectly still, trying to sink back into meditation.

Yes. He was sure of it. No mortal prison would ever hold him.

* * *

Hello, my dearest readers!

So it finally happened: Loki and the Avengers met!

This was just the first scene, of course. I wanted to show the Avenger's and Loki's point of view in this first meeting, so I didn't have the time for the personal, so that'll be dealt with in the next chapter.

Actually, I think, next chapter we will see Thor's first attempt to talk to Loki...and we'll see how good Loki really is in manipulating our favorite superhero team.

So, I hope you enjoyed and see you next chapter!

Thanks to everybody who follows or put me on favorites! I love you, gals n' guys!

Lots of Love,

KandyKitten

P.S. To everybody who reviewed – thank you so much, people!:

**Potkanka**: Thank you! Yeah, I was a bit worried about the length myself, but I just didn't find a part to delete because I needed some of the info hidden in the text…real glad you liked it anyways^^ If there is a purpose behind all this…well, I hope so too…

**ShadowAbsol13:** Thanks for reviewing! Well, I agree, Loki's already said 'Just stop tormenting me', I almost can hear him say 'Kill me'…but well, now that he's back in the wide world…we'll see^^

**angrbodagiantress**: I'm glad I could still touch you with that, I was trying to ^^ Well, about the reason why…there is going to be some speculation, but the answer will have to wait a little. Thanks for the review!

**Ynath Ensrith**: Well, I have to admit, I agree. It's absolutely cruel. About the why…well, I think I will reveal that sooner or later. Thanks for reviewing!

**Limmet**: Thank you for reviewing! Really glad you liked the way Loki slowly broke down and you are spot on: This divided feelings at the end are what is important for Loki from now on…and of course it's the Avengers on the other end! Bulls eye^^

**Jaquelinelittle**: Ah well, I can't have Loki breaking entirely before he met the Avengers, though it sure wasn't easy for him. I think, Loki would not have survived without something to do, too, so as method to keep sane, I gave him the ice, because that would allow him to keep some of his 'dignity' and amplify his self-loathing at the same time. Thanks for the review!

**Madrea Salazar Riddle**: I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for the review…and for the flowers and cookies, my Virtual Me loved them^^


	8. The Question That Matters

Ah, here we are again. Hello, dear readers!

So, in all honesty, I have to admit that I am feeling a little uninspired right now, so there will maybe be a little much talk in this chapter, but I promise, I'll be pushing the story along again soon. I hope you can still enjoy this!

So here we go, readers!

Most characters and settings ©by Marvel

* * *

Tony could feel Loki's gaze on the back of his neck, following them on their whole way out. He was actually thankful when the steel door slammed shut behind Steve, putting a second wall between them.

Now, finally, it was just the team again…well, the team plus one pissed-off looking director.

Fury flipped a switch and the window between the two rooms became milky, obscuring them form Loki's view. On the surface next to the window, screens flared up, showing the corridor and the laboratory itself, in as many angles as possible. The cameras managed to cover the whole cell even though placed on the outside.

He watched their prisoner stepping away from the glass to look around, then tore his gaze away. Next to him, he could practically feel Thor tensing and defensively crossing his arms, getting ready for an uncomfortable conversation.

Fury didn't waste any time. "Can you think of anything that would help us here? Anything we could use to make him talk?"

Thor hesitated for a long moment. "I know things that would hurt even him, or me," he finally said.

The director looked more annoyed than ever. "Well, how about you…"

"But I would rather use those means as a last resort, if at all," Thor undercut him in a very collected voice, hard eyes never leaving Fury's.

"If at all?" Fury repeated. "Just what are you saying?"

"I am saying that I would try talking first. I would rather not give my brother over to unnecessary pain if it can be helped."

"'Unnecessary?' Last time those Chitauri were here, there were over two hundred casualties. Women, children, _innocent _people, wounded and killed and now those things are back, threatening those people again. And them being here…" He pointed towards the milky window. "…is _his_ fault."

"And he was punished for it," Thor said, very calmly. "_Severely_."

Tony threw a glance at the screen where he could see Loki sitting on the bed, staring blankly ahead, and wondered if he really wanted to know what 'severely' meant in Asgard.

"That doesn't change anything," Fury argued back. "We still need information and he is not willing to give them."

Thor un-crossed his arms and straightened up, suddenly looking_ very_ imposing

"And that should still leave us with more options than torture." His voice was not any louder or harder than before, but something in the tone made very clear that he would defend his position with every means.

"It would." One had to give credit to Fury for not looking intimidated. "If we had time, but we can't wait 'til this game bores him; we need answers and we need them _fast_."

"You do not know that," Thor reasoned.

"So you are willing to risk an entire city, maybe this world for the sake of a mass murderer?"

Thor's hands clenched at his sides and his steely eyes flared angrily but he managed to sound a bit more resolute than threatening. "I did not convince my father to take Loki here only to have him torn apart. And I am not willing to let you torture a defenseless prisoner before even trying to go another way."

Fury bristled, striking quite an intimidating pose himself, but Thor…well, he was the God of Thunder. There was no overshadowing his presence.

In that short pause, Tony, who had been listening with raising repulsion, decided that he had been silent for far too long.

Before those two could cause a diplomatic catastrophe, he stepped forward to throw his two cent in.

"Fury, he's got a point." Every eye immediately turned to him. "We're supposed to be the good guys, we don't run around ripping people's nails out and stuff scorching coals in their mouths whenever we feel like it."

He hoped nobody noticed the slight waver in his voice as he said that. The cave and the desert still appeared in his nightmares pretty detailed, but nowhere as near as that coal-incident.

Fury stared at him, but Tony held his gaze until the other man looked away again to glare at every single one of them. Natasha's face was a blank mask, Steve looked torn and Bruce was most likely on Thor's and his side. Clint was the only one almost looking as if he was agreeing with Fury, but luckily, he never spoke up.

_Good_, Tony thought. He was not pro-Loki, but he _definitely_ considered himself anti-torture.

Apparently, the director knew when he was defeated. "All right. You question him all you want, but if there is another Chitauri-related incident, I will just start to test strategies. You may be sentimental, but I will not let this world pay for it."

Making these his parting words, Fury left the room, slamming the door behind him and leaving an group in his wake.

As soon as they were alone, Thor gave up his threatening posture. His shoulders suddenly dropped and he raked his fingers through his hair.

"Thank you," he sighed into Tony's direction, sounding tired, almost defeated.

"No trouble." Tony tried to plaster an encouraging grin on his face. "SHIELD's always been too fast with the thumb-screws if you ask me."

Clint shifted his weight and stared at them defiantly. "Well, no protest to that…but don't you think he's right in this case?"

"Clint..." Bruce started with a glance at Thor, but was cut off, too.

"That is all right. I know that you have reason to hate him, but he is my brother still and I…" Thor broke off, looking at the screen where Loki still sat unmoving, eyes fixed on a point somewhere slightly right of the camera. "Loki has been through enough already."

"_He_ has been through enough?" Clint asked disbelievingly.

Thor and Tony both looked at him, but Natasha ended their quarrel before they could start it. "So now that SHIELD's off the table, we need a new strategy." She raised her brows and looked at Thor. "Thoughts?"

There was no reaction. Natasha waited for thirty seconds, then she rolled her eyes impatiently.

She knew they either needed to trick him again or they needed some form of leverage to hold over him. Some knowledge about what he might fear, what they could use as bribe.

And the only way to get that…

"You know, you still haven't told us what happened when you brought him to Asgard. If we knew what he's been sentenced to, well, you know…" She shrugged. "We would know how to play this."

"You want to know the details of his punishment?" When Thor put it like that, it sounded like they were gorehounds waiting to hear about the gruesome details of the latest snuff film and Tony winced a little, but Thor didn't seem offended, he merely shrugged.

"If it would help you…" was all he said before lapsing into a rough explanation of the mental attack the sorcerers had performed on Loki.

Thor honestly hoped that it would cause them to support him. He tried his best to _explain_, but no words seemed to catch the situation he had experienced.

He was unconsciously staring at Loki's image on the screen while he talked, nervous about not being convincing – he had never been a great talker - but judging by the mixture of disbelief, bewilderment and a trace of horror he saw spreading on their faces when he glanced up, he managed well enough.

When he was done, there was a short silence, then Tony breathed out a "Wow".

"Not quite the word I would use," Natasha muttered.

"No, honestly now, _reliving the memories of the people he's killed_? That's…I don't know if I should say 'brilliant' or 'brutal'."

"Both, I believe," Thor said lowly. "He needed to understand that he has done something horrible, attacking civilians...but he should not have been forced to go through it alone, especially…" Thor stopped, overthought his words and hastily changed gears. "He was alone for too long."

Tony frowned. There was something Thor was not telling them, obviously.

"Well, if he was all alone this past year, than maybe we _should _try talking. He might accidentally let something slip." Bruce mused before Tony could ask.

"You really think that would work?" Clint sounded more than doubtful.

"Well, it did last time." Natasha shrugged and crossed her arms, frowning in concentration. She was probably already planning the conversation. "I could try again."

"I think Thor should go in first."

Everybody turned to Bruce and even Thor himself looked skeptical, but the man just stared ahead, slowly wringing his fingers, no bit less concentrated than Natasha.

"He is angry at you, yeah, but from all of us, you were the only one he addressed. He _wants_ to talk to you, so let's give it to him. Plus, you know him best. Maybe you find something we don't."

Thor still looked doubting, but now there was faint hope in his eyes, too.

Tony still wasn't sure about it, but, well. Last time, too, Loki had let his guard down when he was angry. He had let it down enough to betray his plans, get blasted aside unprepared twice and for the Hulk to get his hands on him.

And this time…

Tony excluded himself from the rest of the discussion. He watched Loki, still sitting on the bed, taking in his still flickering eyes, his drumming fingertips, the unconscious, uncontrolled twitching of his muscles.

He heard heavy steps, then the door opening and closing again as Thor left. A moment later, his blonde mane appeared on the screen, too. Loki's head flinched up, and his lips spread into a wide, unsteady smile.

This time, he was even crazier than before.

Tony scoffed. It might actually work. Hopefully before Fury came back with an arsenal…or before the Chitauri came in firing.

Sighing, Tony pulled up a chair and sat down in a row with the rest of the team, watching the brothers' confrontation.

It was silent support…but support nonetheless.

* * *

Loki knew that he could not have been sitting here for longer than an hour, probably less, but he was already getting impatient.

He could feel his muscles moving on their own accord whenever he was not concentrating on keeping them still. His body wanted to stand up and move, his fingers tried to create ice to play with, but he did not let them.

Not as long as Thor was…might be?...watching. Too humiliating.

In the time he had been alone, Loki had had time to get is thoughts in order and made a decision.

Even if he was still in a cell on Asgard, the room itself had been made to look like Midgard. Thus, it would have Midgardian weaknesses. So, even if all of this was just a ruse of Odin to a goal he did not understand (and he still was not sure about this), it was best to treat this as reality.

Once this decision was settled, Loki had jumped to new musings.

Now, he wanted the humans to come back. He was not overly scared of any torture they might have planned for him – he was sure their methods and tools were naught in comparison with Asgard's and even if Thor would be the one doing it, he would not have it in him to actually hurt. Not in the way they had.

Thor was an oaf, reckless and vicious in battle, selfish and inconsiderate in peace, but he was by no means sadistic.

No, if it had actually been his not-brother standing behind this glass wall, sentimentality would protect him for a while.

But solely against the humans. The Chitauri were a different matter entirely. He needed the human's freak team to come and question him. He was not at his best – far from it, he grudgingly had to admit – but he was sure, if they would just _talk_ to him, he could find out how to escape.

Last time, the leader had even showed him how to open and drop the cage. Sheer stupidity, but useful.

But as long as no one _came_…

As if on cue, the door opened again, revealing the Mighty Thor himself. Loki eyed him carefully as he approached the cage with slightly hesitant steps.

Loki greeted him with a broad grin. "Thor! Has your freak team sent you ahead in hope your sorrowful eyes would make me talk better than their meaningless threats?"

Thor just eyed him carefully. "The bruising's gone."

That threw Loki for a moment. He frowned, trying to make sense of that. "Well, after...so much time, I would be honestly worried if they were not gone," he finally said.

"I am just glad you were at least spared from chains and the damned muzzle this past year." Thor sounded as if he meant it. "Your face looked horrible after they had taken it off, I cannot imagine what it must have felt like wearing it."

Loki raised one brow, feeling a tinge of well-known anger. "You seem to forget who put it on me in the first place."

Thor almost winced. "For all it is worth, I _am_ sorry."

He actually was. He had hated it to see Loki, whose best weapon had always been his voice and words, gagged and humiliated like this. The dark, green-and-purple bruising on his face and the shallow cuts around his jawbones that this thing had left had not been helping the matter.

"You are being sentimental again," Loki informed him coldly, ruthlessly squishing the tiny spark of astonishment the apology woke in his heart. "Will you not start what you came here for?"

He really wished Thor would just _begin_. The sooner they came to the questioning part, the sooner he could stop asking himself if this man was actually worried about him. As soon as the uncomfortable part began, their roles would be clear again.

After all this confusion, Loki desperately needed clarity. Needed things to be easy and plain.

"I came here because I wanted to see you."

Of course, Thor would be stalling. Loki looked at him, then to the cameras and finally to the window without really seeing them, asking himself who was listening and how many and if Thor somehow opened a door he was not seeing yet, could he be fast enough to go before he caught him and what if he was not…

He forcefully wrestled his racing thoughts back into a provisional order before they could run wild and confuse him. He needed a clear head.

"You have seen me. You have seen that I am well and unharmed. Now you can leave and go back to whatever foolishness you plan on dragging your friends into today with a mind eased from all worries. Unless, of course, there would be something else you came for?"

His voice was mocking, but soft, like cold silk. Loki smiled, this time less forced. He was almost proud of himself.

"I was hoping you could answer me some questions I have, too," Thor admitted.

Loki opened his arms invitingly, fighting not to let a rising amount of fear show. The dungeons were in his mind all too clearly still. "Come in, then. Do your best. I am curious to what skills in torture you have, as you lowering yourself to this level before would be news to me"

"I will not force you." That surprised him again. "And do not_ look_ at me like that. You are my _brother_. I would never harm you, how can you even_ think_ that?"

Loki opened his mouth.

"Fine, I would never _torture_ you. And despite what you say, you are my brother."

"And I am impressed." Quite worried, too. Thor had never before been able to predict his words like this.

"Loki, please." Thor's face showed nothing but pained concern now. "Just answer the questions they have. You cannot want the Chitauri to come here again."

Loki felt a muscle at his jaw twitch. No, he did not. Especially not as long as he was locked.

The answer must have shown on his face, because he could see Thor brightening with joy even from back here…and moved to destroy it.

"Why would I?" he asked. "The humans have proven able to fight them. I do not see why I should bother to soothe their curiosity."

"Doing it will be seen as a sign of your good will." Loki scoffed, but Thor just went on. "Cooperating would show you have learned something. Maybe you would walk free soon. You would be able to come back home."

Loki stared at him. Was Thor this stupid…or had he become this deceiving?

Again, he stood up to walk forward. He stopped inches before the glass, looked into Thor's face and tried to ignore how he had to look _up_. Smiling softly, Loki reached out to him as if to touch his cheek.

"Lying, Thor, does not become you."

Almost immediately, all traces of joy or hope vanished from his broth…from _Thor's_ face, were replaced with pain and shock. He, too, reached out to touch the spot where Loki's hand lightly rested against the glass.

"Just what has _happened_ to you? What happened to you that made you scoff at the idea of ever being welcomed back?"

Loki felt a bitterness raising that was too familiar. He already knew Thor was fixed on the idea that he could be forgiven for the Destroyer-incident, the Midgard-incident, that he could forget and 'come back home'. Of course the man would just close his eyes against anything that did not fit his idea.

"If that is the best you can come up with, then you better send in the mortal as soon as he has found _something that cuts me_," he growled, tearing his hand away from the glass as if he had been burned.

"You should be careful with that offer. He will take you up on it."

Despite himself, Loki began to laugh. "After the trial, after what I have been sentenced to…do you even know that?"

Thor nodded, shifting uncomfortably. "The last time I saw you…you were on that stone, already in trance. They were about to send you those memories…" His voice faded out, maybe silenced by horror.

"The Mindcage, yes. Is that all?"

Thor stared at him in complete surprise and Loki was close to rolling his eyes and voice a snarky remark, just like in the good old times, but he held back.

"You do realize that they had to overpower me to send me into this trance, yes?" Loki swallowed thickly, his voice had begun to shake.

"Well…yes" Obviously, that oaf had never thought about it like that.

Loki grinned, an ugly, pained grimace. "And after centuries of guarding my thoughts, protecting my mind to every cost, did you think I simply gave in? Did you think I did not fight to the last scrap of my power to hold them off? Or did you think I _could not _hold them off?"

Thor visibly paled. "What did they do to you?"

Loki bared his teeth at him. "What do you _think_?"

"Oh Loki…" In the other god's face, he could see the wish to remove the glass separating them, to put a hand on his cheek, hug him, _comfort _him. He was not sure what to think of that. "I am so sorry. I did not…if I had known…"

Was he? Was he caring enough? Was he pretending…no, Thor was a horrible liar…right?

"Well now, Thor…" Loki allowed a manic grin to spread over his features, still shuddering with horrible memories. "Do you still believe anything you leader out there says could scare me just for a heartbeat? That the prospect of 'going home' softens my hatred?"

Thor looked vaguely sick, horrified and angry at the same time, and Loki was suddenly torn between malicious pleasure and feeling touched.

"Whatever you think will help you to make me cooperate, you are free to try, because there is only one outcome for this."

Thor took a step back from the glass, still staring at him in sheer horror and Loki felt excitement rushing through his veins. In his cell, he had horribly missed Thor, but seeing him here in all his glory and still pretending to be caring and ready to forgive…

It was too much.

"I will have my revenge, Thor. The only question that matters to me is: Who will be there first – me…or them?"

* * *

So you have reached the pseudo-cliffhanger that marks the end of this chapter. Welcome at the edge!

A little longer than planned again…in fact, not quite as planned in every way. I knew I had to do the discussion with Fury and Thor and the rest of the team supporting their friend rather than their official leader but when I came to writing, Fury was too stubborn to play along and then Loki just snatched the keyboard from me and started doing whatever he wanted.

Annoying beast. But what can one tiny mortal do against it?

Be that as it may, Loki is far from caving in and back to full-on confrontation mode, lashing out at whomever he has before him. Next time, he might prove that again while the ropes tighten around them…

Hope to see all of you again - bright and early, Monday morning (cookies for those, who know the quote)!

Really hope you enjoyed! Reviews and constructive critic are, as always, very appreciated!

To all of you who reviewed, put me on favorites or follow the story: Thank you for your continued support!

Lots of Love,

KandyKitten

P.S.: At all reviewers:

**ShadowAbsol13**: And it is about to get even more personal….Thanks for reviewing!

**Limmet**: Glad you liked it! Yeah, that 'boy'-line was one of those things that just came out and I kept it…but it was really Fury running away with me^^ And I hope updates will come faster now, even though I'm a little uninspired right now…Anyway, thank you for the review!

**Potkanka**: Thanks for reviewing! And here we go, from cold be worse to horrible…Loki just can't give in that easy, he's just not cooperative. What exactly Tony sees in Loki's behavior I'll deal with later…there is still a long way to go, after all^^

**Jaquelinelittle**: Yeah, Fury is kind of becoming a bad guy here….but well, in the movie he asks Thor to force an answer out of him even before sending Natasha in, so…yeah. Well, thanks for reviewing!

**Ynath Ensrith**: Oh no, I love Thor, I would never let him become _that_ cruel!. He didn't know the specifics of what happened to Loki, too, as you've probably just seen… Just, well, Asgard is a hard world with hard inhabitants and he is one of them, so he's not too soft, either. Well, anyways, thanks for reviewing!

**NotControl**: Glad you liked it and I hope, you enjoyed that one, too! Thanks for the review!

**Ash Colored Wings**: Thank you for commenting! Glad you like it!

**LePetitErik**: Glad you like it! Well, you'll have to wait a little to find out what Tony decides to do, there is a long way to come still, after all….Thanks for commenting, anyways!


	9. Conversational Revelations

Hello and welcome back, dear readers!

So I think my muse might have come over for a short time and so, without further babble form my side, I let you jump right into hers and my latest outburst.

Have fun with it, people!

Most characters and settings ©by Marvel

* * *

Tony had not thought it would be possible, but the mood in their side of the laboratory had gotten even worse since Thor's try to get something out of Loki.

Since Loki had hinted at having been tortured in Asgard, the Thunder God had become significantly reserved. He was even more shocked than the rest of them, and had apparently given up hope at getting anything out of his brother by talking.

On the other hand, he opposed to Fury's methods even more now and by now, he had open support not only from Tony, but also from Bruce and Steve.

Putting a torture victim under torture again…even though he was a crazy mass murderer, it would be…_twisted_.

They had argued back and forth about what to do next for a good hour, until Bruce had finally played the voice of reason and told them to get at least a few hours of sleep. Most of them had begrudgingly admitted that he was right – they had been here for twenty hours by now, helping to test the cage, to question Loki.

They had been fried.

Unfortunately, five hours of pretty uncomfortable sleep later, they still could not agree on how to go on, if it was better to meet Loki's aggressive teases with Tony's snark, Clint's silent anger or Natasha's cool, even Steve's moral-dripping riot acts and threatening him with the Hulk had been suggested.

Fury breathing down their necks with growing intensity didn't help the situation along, too.

Now, they were sitting around the screens again, watching Loki sauntering through his cage – since his encounter with Thor, he had not been sitting still for longer than fifteen minutes – his eyes following the lined runes from the floor to the point above his head.

He might have looked like a tourist admiring the architecture of some church, had there not been something jerky, impulsive about his movements, making him seem restless and driven.

"Why can't I just go in?" Tony demanded. "Last time I got him pissed enough to throw me out of a window, I'll get him to yell at me, easy."

"Yeah, that's what we want, for you two to have a pissing contest," Clint growled.

"Why the hell not? He rants when he's pissed, right?"

Thor shrugged, looking solemn. "Yes, he does. But he also gets more likely to deceiving his opponents when he is angered. Also, he has beaten you in discussion before, he will feel superior and lie to you just to prove he is."

Tony was about to argue that ending a discussion by throwing your opponent out of a freaking window _wasn't_ winning when Natasha moved.

She suddenly straightened and pushed her chair back. Its legs scratched over the floor witch a shrill shriek. She stood up, loosened her gun in the holster, and walked swiftly towards the door. Tony's imagination immediately added sparks of confidence flying from her heels.

Steve moved forward to stop her. "Natasha, are you sure? You got him last time, he won't fall for that again."

Natasha looked back defiantly. "Fine, you want to go?" When there was no answer, she nodded. "He doesn't know what to think of me and maybe wants to prove he's smarter. I'll get you something. Just trust me."

Before he could say anything else, she pushed past the super soldier, fully taking advantage of the fact that he would never use his strength against a woman and strode through the door.

The rest of the Avengers stared, then they all simultaneously rushed to the screens to watch the encounter.

When the door opened, Loki stopped and turned to face it. As he saw who was approaching him, his expression wandered from surprise to wariness to a wide grin within a second.

"Agent Romanoff." His voice was silkily soft, but deprived form any emotion.

"Loki," she greeted back, voice equally plain.

"I was wondering if you had given up already." Loki came a few steps closer, until he was standing at the line the light falling into the cage created. "So tell me now: With intentions of what kind were you sent in here?"

"I wasn't sent, I came," Natasha corrected him. "We had a good talk last time, I thought trying again was worth a shot."

Loki's smirk changed, the skin around his eyes tightened warily. "'Take your shot' then, as your kind says."

Natasha nodded and took her position, right in front of the significantly taller demigod. "I want you tell me something about your ex-allies. Like, how do they swim through space or how did they travel before you came along, the likes."

"Why do you not ask what you really want to hear?" Natasha didn't respond and Loki sadly shook his head, every inch the theatrical diva Tony knew him to be.

"We have been at this point before so you know the play, Agent Romanoff." He smiled and used both hands to gesticulate at himself and her. "This is a…._mutual_ conversation."

Natasha crossed her arms. "So you will give me information if I give you information, that's what you're saying?"

"If you want to put it like this…" Loki shrugged and started to walk again, looking perfectly relaxed, but Tony could – and he was sure that Natasha could, too – see the sharp awareness in his eyes.

This time, Loki knew she would be trying to trick him.

"Do you want to hear another personal story or do you know all of mine?" Natasha asked him, tone cold but slightly mocking.

Another grin that almost made Tony shudder, despite only seeing it on screen. "No, I do not wish to hear anecdotes of your life. You are invited to share those with me when situation is not so dire anymore, though. I have not heard stories of skilled bloodshed in quite a time."

If the little barb offended Natasha, she didn't show it. Tony really had to hand it to her, her professionalism easily outmatched that of Clint or Fury.

"What makes you think the situation is dire?" she asked, not betraying any emotion but bewildered curiosity.

Loki gave her a tired look and waved the question off. "You would not have had me transferred here so hastily, questioned me this guilelessly if not the Chitauri were standing before your city's gates."

Natasha thought for a moment. In the adjacent room, the rest of the Avengers did, too…but Tony knew that she had no choice. She had to give him at least a scrap of the truth.

"You're right." Natasha came closer until she was standing right in front of the glass, almost exactly on the spot where Thor had stood hours ago. "They are here."

* * *

At the same moment Natasha opened the door between the laboratories, Sif strolled over to the arena's edge the and let herself drop next to Volstaag and Fandral to watch the last training fight for today.

"Hjalti has become better," Fandral said happily. His whole back was covered with sand and his sleeve showed long tears from his fight with Cosack's eldest, but he looked overall content, still.

"Hogun will crush him," Sif scoffed coolly.

Both men threw her suspicious glances, but she ignored them. She was not at ease and she would not pretend to be. Even the fights had not managed to soothe her today…even though she had won every single one and had handed out some bruises that would remind the mighty warriors not to laugh at a women on battlefield for a while.

Sif knew it was petty, but she could not help it. She was angry with Thor.

Roughly three days ago, Thor had returned from one of his prolonged visits to Midgard and instead of coming to them, he had rushed to see his father the second the Tesseract's strange powers had released him. In fact, they had met him by coincidence as he had practically run into them on his way.

And instead of saying anything clear, he had just claimed that the mortals needed Loki, of all people, and then he had rushed into his father's quarters. Sif had wanted to ask him for details, had wanted to offer him her help, but Thor had declined and let Heimdall send him back to earth.

So, yes, she accepted him teaming with the mortals, but she did absolutely not accept to be replaced by them and be it only for the few years they would live.

In the makeshift arena – it was merely a roughly quadrangular field just outside the city's walls, covered with a thick layer of sand, but practically nobody remembered at time when it had not been used for training fights – Hogun threw his opponent down hard enough for the man to slide a few feet.

They waited for about thirty seconds before Balder laughed approvingly. "Good strike, my friend. It seems the Aesir are not the only people made of steel."

As usual, Hogun's reply was not more than a grunt and a shrug as he dusted himself of.

Hjalti tried to stand up and sank groaning back down. "That were really good fights, but I think I am finished for today."

"I would agree." Balder commented with a glance to Hjalti's fingers that were red and already swelling from the hit they had taken. "Does anybody want a last round? Fandral?"

The blonde man waved off. "No, thanks. I want to save some of my stamina for tonight."

"Crude hound," Sif growled and slammed her elbow into his already bruised side, but she was grinning.

"Back to home, then?" Volstagg asked hopefully. Sif could hear his stomach growling even from where she sat.

"If we are done here." Balder shrugged and went to first help Hjalti up and then fetch their horses. "Are you riding with us?"

"We came by foot," Hogun informed him, sounding slightly annoyed. Sif could understand it, asking a question like this when there obviously were only two horses standing in a short distance from the field…it was so _Balder_.

"Well then!" The two men mounted their horses and waved for goodbye. "You all are very formidable opponents! It would be fine to see you more often. Just next time, if you find him, you could bring Thor along, too. I would love to cross blades with him again, too."

"We will try!" Sif called after him and then lowly added "If he would still care to cross blades with Asgardians, that is."

"Are you still bitter that he did not want to take you along to Loki's meeting with the mortals?" Volstagg asked her.

"You have to admit, it is for the better. You would have strangled him before he could have told them anything they wanted to know," Fandral told her and then hastily and unsuccessfully ducked away from her blow.

They wandered down the path in silence for a while, then she said, "It is not that I feel jealous or rejected. I just have the feeling that there is so much he has not told us about Midgard and I hate the thought that he is keeping secrets form us."

Volstagg shook his head. "Maybe he just does not want to give is any more reason to discredit Loki. You know how he is with his brother."

"Yes, I know." Sif sighed. "But it still bugs me. Thor is not the one who should lie and keep secrets."

"Well, we cannot change it right now, so you should forget about your worries until he returns." He thought for a moment and gave her his best insinuating grin. "I could help you to set your mind onto…_different_ things. I am sure I would perform very well, as in every aspect of my life as my many battle scars will prove."

Sif snorted. "Battle scars are only proof you were hit. And I know most of them come either from you tripping or that time Volstagg fell on you."

Even Fandral himself stumbled with laughter and, as he had wanted, their mood brightened immediately. That was, as always, until Hogun piped up.

"You might get a chance on real battle scars soon."

They followed his gaze up. In front of them, a winded stairway carved into the stone led up to a bridge connected one side of the narrow valley with the hill the city of Asgard was build on. And on the bridge, his back turned to them, stood a muscular man with a black mane surrounding shoulders and neck – no one less but the God of War himself.

Sif and Hogun exchanged a glace. If Tyr was here, battle never was far.

They sped up a little, hasting up the granite steps, smoothed by many millennia of usage, but before they had gone half the way, a woman walked on the bridge from Asgard's side. She saw Tyr, hesitated and then sped towards him.

At the end, the stairway took a sharp, ninety-degree-turn to the right before the bridge, surrounded by high walls shielding the stair from the abyss. When someone cowered behind the wall, they were not visible from the bridge, Sif knew.

She did not know what made her do it, but as she saw the small, blonde woman she did not recognize – Thor and Loki both would have – talking to Tyr, she let herself drop, waving for the rest of then to do the same.

She had not planned to listen in, but then the wind turned.

"…needed a sorceress to support the spell." That was the woman's voice, followed by Tyr's deep growl.

"So it is a prisoner on Midgard now. Then let us hope the mortals have the guts to do what Odin could not."

The woman's voice became higher. "You mean kill him?" There was a pause. Sif assumed Tyr was nodding. "They would not dare, he still is royalty."

Sif frowned and glanced at the others. Fandral mouthed "Talking about Loki" into her direction and twisted his face into a questioning look.

"It is a monster." Tyr snarled. "And I know you know that, Gytha."

The woman – Gytha – was silent for a while, then she lowly said: "Yes, I do…I helped…you know, the AllTongue, prompting his magic to shapeshift…I cannot say, Tyr, I am sworn to silence…and so are you."

"I know." That sounded dismissive. "I was fighting the battle with Odin, I was the last one to leave from all warriors and I was there when he brought that thing out of the temple, disguised as one of ours and he bound me with an oath, too. He should have killed it."

"Of course he would have deserved a death sentence for what happened on Midgard. But be assured he was punished. Not as hard as I would have wished, but hard." Gytha said.

"Not then. It would have been a good idea, taking this runt, but the moment Odin noticed those giant animals did not care about the brat he should have killed it _before_ it could cause all this trouble."

"You know I agree, but Frigga and Thor had fallen for the child already. Appearance can fool the soft hearts of most women and children," Gytha argued a little defensively.

"Odin is as soft as them," Tyr growled, uncaring of Gytha's horrified gasp. "Keeping this thing was bad enough, announcing it his child was even worse, stopping it from ending the rest of those monsters and not killing it after Midgard was unforgivable. He has become weak."

"He is our _king_!" Gytha hissed mortified.

"And he protects a monster from the ice!" Tyr hissed back.

"Tyr, hush, _please_. If somebody hears you…you are sworn and you know it, the Allfather will…"

"If you are scared, then go and search your herbs, sorceress," Tyr scoffed at her. "It's all you mages are good for, apparently."

Sif could hear Gytha's gasps and Tyr's heavy steps as he retreated. He was going to Asgard, but Gytha was not and if she walked on, she would find them here, but she could not care.

Sif sat on the last flight of stairs, back of her head leaned against granite, golden and crystalline ornaments glittering in the corner of her eye and not seeing or hearing anything as she tried to wrap her mind around the impossibility she had just heard. She was not sure when she managed to turn her head to look at her friends only to be met by the same shock she felt reflected on their faces.

"He…did I understand that right?" Fandral stammered, voice unusually high.

Sif shook her head slowly…and then, the same ferocity and pragmatism that had caused her to become a warrior clicked in.

"I don't know," she said. "But I know someone who does."

Gytha flinched as Sif brushed around the corner. She threw then a suspicious glance and hasted past them with a small, greeting nod. Sif paid her no heed.

The other looked after her, but followed the only women in their group on her way to the gate at the city's opposite side without stopping Gytha. They knew it was not necessary to ask the mage.

Heimdall would have better answers anyway.

* * *

Two cliffhangers in one chapter. Ha.

The situation is getting worse and worse for Loki…and he doesn't even know. It might take a few chapters before I return to Asgard, but they will have their role.

To the first part….that discussion between Loki and Natasha was one of my favorite scenes in the movie and I couldn't resist the rematch. They are just both so…brilliant. Part two of their discussion will be in the next chapter…and don't worry, the talks between Tony and Loki will come soon, too.

I hope you all enjoyed! Reviews and constructive critic are appreciated!

Thanks to you who put this story on favorite or follow and, of course, especially to you, my constant, faithful readers! I love you all! So, just for you, I will do something special: The next chapter will come extra-soon, day after tomorrow, cross my heart!

Lots of Love,

KandyKitten

P.S. To my reviewers:

**Limmet:** Glad you liked it! I agree with you on Loki: He just isn't the type to cooperate, he's just too proud. And don't worry, I won't give this story up…it's the weather that makes me kind of listless, as soon as that is better, I'm back behind the keyboard^^ Anyways, thank you for reviewing so regularly!

**ShadowAbsol13**: And I hope you keep that feeling! Thanks for the review!

**jaquelinelittle: **Yeah, in the end it was the work with the Tesseract that drew Thanos attention on earth and allowed Loki to open the portal, but I don't think Fury would ever admit that. Also, having the possibility doesn't give you the right to act…I mean, I absolutely love Loki and I don't think he's evil, but he _did_ give the order to strike, so that is one of the things Fury is referring to with that utterance. 'Bout the torture…well, kinda bad guy. Period. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!

**coco:** I hope this chapter meets your expectations. Thank you for the review!

**LePetitErik:** Glad you like it. I hope you still want to read on! Thanks for the review!

**angrbodagiantress:** Good it worked, I was trying to mke the interaction between them look a little…real, but I was't sure if I nailed it…so I'm glad you liked them! And yeah, of course the Avengers need to side with each other…would be one horrible team otherwise. Thank you for reviewing!

**Potkanka: **Ah yes, Loki and his pride…well, he just is not one to let go of the past, so that will be in his way…so I'm not so sure if he will cooperate so soon, Loki always is so stubborn...but you'll find your questions answered in the next chapter^^ Thank you for reviewing so regularly!


	10. Impossibility

Hey there, dear Readers!

And here is chapter ten, exactly two days after the last one, as promised (though it is a little shorter than usual)! Take your time, people and enjoy!

Lots of Love,

KandyKitten

* * *

"You're right." Natasha came closer until she was standing right in front of the glass, almost exactly on the spot where Thor had stood hours ago. "They are here."

"_Now_ we are playing." Loki stopped in his pacing to face Natasha properly, his expression becoming serious. "They attacked you again…and now what exactly is it you wish to know? You already know how to slay them."

"They didn't." The woman put her arms akimbo, fingertips almost resting on her gun. Loki raised one brow and cocked his head aside in question.

"They didn't attack us yet. They're just…present. We want to know why and we want to know before your buddies can go on another murder spree. That means, we will find out no matter how, so either you open your mouth now or Fury and his specialists have a go on you. It's your decision."

Everybody expected Loki to react violent again. Tony even hoped that maybe he would lapse into a rant, accidentally giving away whatever he knew or was trying to hide…just like he had done last time Natasha had questioned him.

Instead, the god just stood there, staring into nothingness for a whole of ten seconds, his fingers clenching and un-clenching at his sides slowly.

Then he looked up…and _grinned_.

"Do you really hope to scare me? Or do you hope I would tell you because you have a familiar face?" His voice slowly gained back the mean-mocking quality they were used from him, his eyes glittered wild and maniacal.

Natasha answered by giving him a sneering look. "It worked last time, remember?"

To everybody's surprise, what was meant as taunt made Loki outright laugh.

"The haughtiness of your leader had infected his vassals, it appears. Last time, you learned what I wanted you to learn." If Loki's voice had been silk before, now it was sharp steel wrapped in velvet. "Not more. Not less."

Natasha did her best to look disbelieving. "Whatever gets you through the night."

"You tried to make me believe you had come for the sake of Agent Barton. And you were good." Loki smiled at her, almost fondly. "So I had to test you. And while I approached you, threatening your life and the life of the very man you had supposedly come to protect…never did you back away. You flinched, yes, but your hands came not up for defense, they came down, widening your stand, reaching for those pathetic things you call a weapon."

While speaking, Loki demonstrated it, raising both arms in a defending, helpless-looking gesture before his chest, then letting them fall to his sides, fingers reaching for an imaginary gun.

"Your body language gave you away. You could have fooled a mortal, but you might want to remember that I have been doing this since long before you were born."

Natasha was only staring tensely. "You are changing the subject, Loki. I wanted to talk about now, not about the past."

Loki turned and began to walk away very slowly, ignoring her. "I knew what I had to do and that you were a spy. I t was the perfect opportunity. What would make a man angry enough to lose control if not…"

He spun around, raising his forefinger. His stance was that of a professor giving a lecture, his face showed the manic glee of a ridiculed scientist who had finally proven all his crazy theories right…or that of a Trickster God finally able to show everybody how smart he really was.

"…if not the very people who have brought him into this situation turning against him?"

Natasha contemplated that, nodded to herself. "How do I know you are not making that up to throw me off the game now?"

"You cannot." Loki smirked gloatingly.

"You really hope you can get me to doubt myself." Now Natasha was sneering back, openly attacking. "You look so smug right now, but I think that's all show."

"Oh, do you." There was a hint of aggressiveness in Loki's face and voice, but it was strangely superficial, completely lacking any form of depth….as everything Loki had been doing since Natasha was in this room.

"I know. You are playing mind games because you want to stall. Do you want to keep us from finding out you are as ill-informed as we are?"

Loki's grin widened, giving him a dangerously deranged look, but again, Tony saw something that disturbed him. He just couldn't put his finger on it.

"I am doing this because it is fun. It is fun to see you waver. To see you doubt."

"When you don't tell us anything…then you go back into the cell you came from. Solitary for you, for however long you were sentenced to, you've got to know that."

The grin didn't vanish, but Natasha could see the moment it turned forced. "Probably, yes. But if I tell you, I will be taken back, too. Maybe I rather go with the knowledge to have dragged you with me into the abyss."

You don't actually know anything." Natasha took a step away from the cage, threatening to leave. "You were locked away somewhere, all by yourself. You can't know why they're here."

"Maybe this was planned so you would bring me to earth and they could free me," Loki countered. "Maybe I do not know anything. In this case, though, you should check what your court and your leader have done this time to attract attention. A tricky situation, Agent Romanoff."

Now it was Natasha's turn to smirk.

Loki had almost had her back there. He had made her waver, doubt herself, and maybe, he had even tricked them back with the Hulk…but she was sure that this time, she had nailed it. Loki didn't know.

"Could be, yeah. But I think we're wasting our time with you."

She turned and walked back to the door, pulling it open. Behind her, she heard Loki moving, too, and barely withstood the reflexive urge to turn.

"You know, you are right!"

Loki's voice ringing after her made her stop and look over her shoulder. The man stood, again, with one hand pressed against the glass now, an ugly grin contorting his features.

"You are wasting your time asking questions about the Chitauri," he said. "The one you should be afraid of is their leader."

The sound of his laughter followed her out, ringing in her – and everybody else's – ears long after the door had fallen close and he had stopped in favor of meditating on his bed again.

* * *

Loki stopped laughing very soon after the spy-women had left, probably to conference with her mortal friends now that he had shown himself not only uncooperative but aggressive.

Aiming to bruise her ego like that had been a crude way to get rid of her, thoughtless, and Loki was cursing himself for it already – he had given her the possibility to guess what he had wanted to hide for a little while longer: He did not know how they might have come…or what they wanted.

But as much as she had found out about him, the talk with Agent Romanoff had cleared more for him. Probably a lot more than she had planned.

He had been worried about the possibility the Chitauri might come, but until she had told him, he had not even been sure if they were really here. He had not understood why they would take the time to have petty discussions with him and each other if they were under attack.

Now, he knew and slowly but surely, worry became panic.

They had not attacked yet, but they were '_present_'. They had to be watching, maybe gathering information the mortals had not wanted to give away – nothing else would explain why they suddenly needed him.

And there was the problem.

The Chitauri were not mindless. To be valuable in battle, they had to be able to make independent decisions, they knew when to strike and when to seek cover to a certain degree, but overall, they were merely drones connected to a hive far away from battlefield, made to overrun their enemy without actually caring for loss and death.

Spying and meticulous planning was not in their repertoire.

But now, they were…it could only mean Thanos was not only giving orders, he had taken control over them and that was even worse than what he had imagined before. It meant Thanos would come personally.

And when Thanos came, he would come like a storm, destructive and without mercy.

And the humans would not be able to stop him.

_I have to get out of here. Before he comes._ Since the second Romanoff had told him about them, this was all he could think about. Therefore, maybe the way he had gotten rid of her had been crude, but effective, too.

He had made clear that he was smarter that they had believed, torn the spy's former victory apart and now he hoped building up a new strategy would keep them occupied for a while, because what he was about to do would cost time.

With long steps, Loki all but rushed back to the cot and sat down close to the wall. His eyes wandered over the ceiling, the walls, the cameras, the steel frame.

There were no air holes he could use – Loki knew that without checking.

He knew the trick form Asgard, the healers and teachers had used it when containing dangerous or poisonous animals. Some of the runes were meant to suck fresh air in from the outside, as not to let the captured subject suffocate.

Also, he had controlled the magic-binding net a few more times, hoping that he had been too confused to be thorough the first time. He still had found no gaps.

So, he had to rely on something else: He had abilities that they did hopefully not know about.

Loki leaned back and closed one hand around the cot's wood frame behind him, carefully checking if the blanket and his leg concealed how his knuckles and back of his fingers touched the glass. His eyes un-focused as he set on his new task – a task that had to work perfectly.

A thin layer of ice spread on the glass. Loki's fingers clenched as he concentrated on it, forced the ice to stay below the bed, thus hopefully out of sight, instead letting it spread downwards until it created a thin, not entirely smooth line reaching from his fingers to the point where the panes creating wall and floor met.

Unfortunately, they fit together perfectly. There was no blade or even paper thin enough to fit between them.

Loki bit back a curse. Those humans had been more careful than he had thought possible…but he had not reached his wit's end yet, either.

The ice contracted on the floor, as close to the wall as possible, forming something resembling a spike or a thorn, the tip hopefully pointing on a rune. Loki steadied and positioned it until it was touching the floor in an angle…then he let it strike down.

Nothing happened.

Before he could lose his patience, Loki let his head fall back, forcefully calmed his boiling emotions and thought, but it did not help. He always reached the same conclusion: It _had_ to work.

He had seen the Jotun's blades effectively blocking their weapons, seen them effortlessly tearing through Fandral's armor, skin, flesh and bone. Their primitive maces had, even though they had taken damage, not immediately shattered under Mjölnir's blows. Thor had beaten a hole into this kind of glass with Mjölnir before.

Technically, he should be able to at least scratch the glass. Then _why was he not_?

Loki felt anger and frustration creep up, panic following shortly after, threatening to choke him. This had been his last resort.

He almost gave up. It was his stubbornness that saved him as he let the thorn strike down once more in a sharp twist, just on principle. There was a tense moment as he felt the pressure in every fiber….

And then there was a harsh sound.

He could barely believe it, not even after checking twice, but it was not the ice that had been damaged. There was a scratch in the glass.

He felt a grin rising and hastily wiped his expression blank. Now he knew what to do.

Still reluctantly, he let himself be overtaken by his long lost instincts. The connection to his little creation intensified as his fingers and part of his palm were conquered by Jotun blue. It spread with a strange, tingling sensation, unfamiliar but not uncomfortable at all.

A wave of disgust and self-loathing followed that thought, anger at the people who had forced this onto him in its wake. Exactly what he needed.

He focused on the connection and pumped all those destructive emotions into the thorn, turning them into something tangible, then he struck down again, pressing and twisting against the glass with all the force he could muster.

It took time, at least thirty minutes, enough to let him break out into cold sweat with exhaustion, but finally, finally there was a high, splintering sound.

Loki's eyes, that had fallen half-close as he had concentrated, now flew wide open. He froze, hands shaking in their death grip on wood and blanket, muscles rendered useless by the tremors that ran through him.

He waited, waited for guards to rush in, for some magic defense he had missed to jump into action, punishing, stopping him from trying again….but there was nothing. They had not noticed. Good. Unfortunately, also nothing else changed, the web still seemed to be in place.

He was already thinking that it had not been enough…

And then. And _then_.

The gap he had slashed into the magic-repressing net was only small, but it was enough. A tiny spark of magic squeezed through, eager to reconnect with his body, spreading warm and cold somewhere deep in his chest.

It was coming home after atrocious battle. It was water after years in Muspelheim's fiery deserts, cool balm on burning wounds, everything pleasant and comforting.

Loki shuddered again, but this time with pleasure. He wanted nothing more than to use it, let his magic run free and erase all signs of exhaustion, let it burn away this feeling of _unreality_ that was still nagging him, but he kept himself in check. Instead, he waited, feeling his power slowly dripping through the gap like sand in an hourglass.

If he managed to hold on for another few hours…if they did not notice the hole in their cage for that time…he might have a chance to escape.

Loki felt his heart starting to race, his blood pounding in his ears, his head was light and spinning with this incredibility.

After all this time of helplessness, he had a _chance_.

* * *

And here we are, practically end of part one, if you want.

I'm kind of…not entirely content with the chapter, but I've been working on this conversation for over a week now and no matter what I try, it just worsens, so…what we should take away form this is that now, Loki finally goes from passive victim to active player. So, who's up for some mischief?

Reviews and constructive critic are appreciated!

'Till next time!

Lots of Love,

KandyKitten

**Limmet: **Yeah, Tyr has the lowest opinion possible…and oh no, Loki is less than cooperative, too stubborn and too proud. Well, I hope that satisfies the need for more for a little while^^ Thanks for the review!

**LePetitErik: **Glad you like it! Thanks for reviewing!

**Potkanka: **Oh yes, the big Nordic family…the thing with Tyr is that he is named Son of Odin in the Prose Edda, but in the Poetic Edda, he is named the Son of Hymir. So I go with Tyr is _not_ actually related to Odin (not sure how it is in the comics, admittedly) because if he already has a mighty war god as oldest heir to the throne, why crown Thor? As Balder did never appear or even was mention in the movies, I guess it's open to interpretation^^ I don't know about the W3 and Sif… they were pretty hard in 'Thor', partying while Loki's family was mourning around them…but I don't believe they would kill Loki, too. The story with Heimdall…well, you'll see the moment the story moves back to Asgard. Anyways, thanks for reviewing!

**jaquelinelittle:** Of course, SHIELD isn't blameless…but well, they can twist it anyway they want and we are still pretty much at the story's beginning, there are still things to come about this theme. Every questions about Heimdall's loyalties and oaths will be answered in Asgard as soon as possible! Thanks for reviewing!

**angrbodagiantress:** Not only trying to find weaknesses – succeeding! And oh no, there is nothing good building up in Asgard right now…but you'll see! Yeah, I hope am not spoiling everybody with the fat update, but I had the whole conversation done in one go and split it later, so…well, here it is! Thanks for reviewing!


	11. Could Mean It Began

Hello, my dear readers!

This is KandyKitten, feeling guilty once again. I really try to update regularly but sometimes…well. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Anyways, here's the new chapter, please enjoy, people!

Love, KandyKitten

* * *

"The one you should be afraid of is their leader." Clint repeated sarcastically. "'_Their leader'_. Talk about a Napoleon complex."

"I'm pretty sure in this case, it's Cesar Complex," Tony chimed in, but was ignored.

Steve stared at the screens, frowning deeply. "Are we sure he was talking about himself? I mean, an army doesn't run itself, there had to be someone in charge before Loki came around…or while he was down here, preparing the invasion."

"Yeah and somebody has to run this…whatever this is right now," Tony muttered, now absolutely serious again, tiredly rubbing his eyes. He had never been this glad to have invented his 'suit'-case. "He ever mentioned someone else?"

Thor sighed and let a hand run over his thick mane. "I always suspected there was somebody else behind all this, but if there is someone, Loki did never say anything about them…not until now."

Well, of course not, Tony thought. He wouldn't give up the people offering him an army, either…or even say 'I'm just the bagman, here'.

"You know…"

The team turned to Clint, even Natasha, who had been staring at the screens until now, probably wondering if he really had been playing her. If it hadn't been so dire, Tony almost would have admired Loki's ability to wind people up.

"He never said anything, but there were times when he was staring into nothingness. I thought…well, I didn't think about it, but he was moving his lips sometimes, as if he was talking to somebody."

"So he probably was in contact with somebody." Bruce's fingers were worrying his glasses, opening and closing the earpieces.

Natasha frowned at the screen. Loki sat on his bed again, eyes unfocused and muscles tense. "Did he look like this?"

Clint's hand was on his bow and Tony reached for his 'special suitcase', not thinking about the fact that they could not stop him from mentally talking with weapons, but Thor stopped them before they could headlessly dash.

"Those runes block every energy-projecting abilities Loki possesses, his magic and his psionics, his telepathy included. He cannot be in contact with anybody who is not within reach of his physical senses."

Clint didn't look convinced. "How sure are you?"

"I am sure of it. Every power that is not physical is being blocked from getting out or in."

Tony slowly set the case back on the floor and dropped into a chair, feeling as if he had been run over by a whole pack of Monster Trucks. He was used to stay up for two or three days at a time when building, but that was usually supported with a scotch and a bathtub worth of coffee, not nerves and adrenalin.

"All right." Natasha tore her gaze away from the screen and swiftly walked up to the table. "So, he doesn't know anything, lets the' leader' slip to keep us interested, so let's stay interested in what's important. How do we play this now?"

They were discussing for maybe an hour, maybe a little longer, comparing their knowledge over the Chitauri with the flimsy pictures of the mothership Tony's suit had saved right before the connection had died down and the information SHIELD had taken from the dead drones, but nothing told them anything about any outward force.

Nothing to hold over Loki, no pictures that would verify or belie the hint he had given them. It was god-damn frustrating.

Finally, Tony threw his phone on the table. The projected picture of the army floating through space flickered at the impact. "Listen, I agree. They all were connected to a big server coordinating them, but this is not going to help us. We don't have the tech to find or trace that…whatever it is in any way."

Clint sniggered, his humor slowly coming back to him. "Are you telling me we've found something the great, one-and-only Tony Stark can't build?"

"Well, I could if Fury would just let me see the samples," Tony complained piqued.

"You keep telling yourself that."

Tony opened his mouth to send out a barbed joke when Steve knocked on the table. "Guys, I know we're all annoyed and tired, but damn, just focus for a little while longer, all right?"

Tony snorted. "Focus on what? We don't have anything more to focus on and we can't just run back in there and ask, he'll never take us seriously if we keep stumbling in like Laurel and Hardy every few hours."

Clint gave a bark of laughter in time with Thor asking "Like who?" and Natasha raising a brow and saying "You really think he might take us seriously?"

"Well…" Tony started, but Bruce cut him off with a raised hand. "Do you hear that?"

They all fell silent and the heavy steps that had been drowned out by their voices suddenly rang through the room astonishingly loud. Steve had time to say, "That sounds like a whole battalion," then the door was smashed open with enough force to hit the wall. A man in SHIELD uniform and a readied rifle looked in, behind him, men and women clothed just the same were rushing down the corridor.

"There's been another sighting," he said. "Two of them, in a block right in Queens."

With that, he was gone, and in their observatory, all hell broke loose.

Tony was cursing and activating his suit before he had turned fully away, his wording more or less similar to what came out of Clint's mouth. The rest wasn't all that mouthy, they simply did a quick check of their arsenal while Bruce unbuttoned his shirt, getting ready to shun it quickly.

They were out on the corridor as fast as possible, rushing towards the main control room. Tony listened to his own, heavy steps and the high whirr of the suit's joints and suddenly asked himself if that was smart.

Loki had said '_maybe they want to free me'_, after all.

He did not voice his worries, though. It sounded too…implausible. Nobody would be stupid enough to let something like this slip if it was the plan.

The main room here was more quiet than in the rest of SHIELD's bases, but it was full enough to make the heavier Avengers look as if they couldn't turn without tumbling something. Still, Fury came to them without even brushing a table.

"I warned you this would happen," he snapped at Thor, then turned to Natasha. "How far have you come with him?"

Tony didn't doubt that Fury had watched them talking all the time and immediately got angry, but Natasha preserved her cool.

"Bad news," she said, her voice perfectly professional, almost toneless. "He might not know anything more than we do, except maybe who leads them when he isn't there."

"You have nothing new." It was no question at all.

"No. He was completely isolated for the last fourteen month. The only thing we could get from him is the name of a leader and maybe a location, but he hasn't given them away yet."

"Great. Just…great." Fury grabbed one of the screens and turned it around so brutally he almost ripped it off. On it, there was a street that looked like every other block in every other big American city, complete with cars on the streets and curtains at the windows…except for the two men brushing past, their appearance flickering from time to time, revealing grey and gold.

"Here is your result. We checked the buildings history and the history of every single former and present inhabitant and came up blank. So now you are going to fly out and see what you can find."

Tony frowned. He remembered what Fury had said about testing strategies very well and if they were gone…

"And you are going to do what, exactly?"

Fury rolled his eyes. "Your pet psycho is not in danger as long as I have to chat with the World Council, so go!"

Tony was not convinced yet, but on the other hand…he saw Thor giving Fury a hard stare and decided that not even the director ever would be stubborn enough to get in a fight with this man just to get his will. No, Fury wasn't that stupid.

Hopefully.

He turned and walked out with the others, none of them willing to keep discussing and wanting to find those things before they could cause any destruction.

"So, first it is a SHIELD base, then it is the World Council, information on armory and defense and leaders and now a downtown block? What the hell do these guys want?" Clint grouched angrily, fastening his bow.

"Well, maybe Fury has some missiles hidden there somewhere," Tony muttered, only half in joke.

"Or they want to distract us from something," Natasha offered, sounding a little worried for all those who could distinguish emotions in her tone.

They had almost reached the yard, Steve had already thrown the door open when behind them suddenly the light bulbs at the walls began to flare in an angry red, pulsing in time with the shrilly howling siren.

Tony groaned. "Oh, what now?"

"Are we handling the Chitauri or this first?" Bruce asked, a tinge of green already visible in his eyes.

It was finally Steve who made the decision, mentioning for them to follow as he turned back to rush down the corridor they had just come from, already expecting the worst.

* * *

His magic pooled through his body, twirling and pulsating in a rhythm with his heartbeat. He had never before realized how wonderful it felt.

Too wonderful.

Loki expected them to find out what he had done and storm in to overpower him before he got his powers back. He expected them to come in to hand him over to torture before he had enough power to defend. He expected this unforeseen luck to run out every second.

So far, nobody had even opened the door and he did his best to remain inconspicuous.

Ever since the second he had broken the sealing, Loki had been sitting exactly at the same spot, back leaned against the wall and fingers folded in his lap.

Using his emotions as tangible weapon had taken its toll on him. He had broken his mental walls, left himself open to every feeling and thought he had tried to shield himself against. The result was that he felt shockingly raw and vulnerable.

Thus, sitting still was a challenge.

Every fiber of his being wanted to escape this. Wanted to find a hideout. Someplace he could bring his mind back in order undisturbed, far away from this, where nobody could surprise or hurt or shock or threaten him. Alone. Someplace _save_.

But he had to remain still. If he controlled himself just a little while longer, he would get what he wanted.

_It is almost impossible to think that I was wishing for somebody to talk and hoping I was supervised_, Loki mused, _when right now, all I want is to be unwatched and alone_. On the other hand, he had often sought solace in isolation and now that he had allowed his biggest flaws in, he needed it more than ever.

He knew he could not bear seeing Thor in all his perfection while still feeling the reminders of his own blemish tingling on his skin.

_Stop thinking about that. Focus on what is important for you right now. Step for step. _

Sighing, Loki let his head fall back, opened his eyes and looked at the walls surrounding him – the ones behind the glass.

He could see only smooth white, but did not doubt that there was massive stone hidden behind the color. Probably too thick for him to break through, he decided. As should be the window and the door at the far wall, not to mention what waited behind. They would not hold him somewhere he could easily smash or fight his way out, not even when thinking him locked safely.

Not that he would need to. Loki knew very well that he would be able to vanish the second he stepped out of this cage. Maybe not too far away, not after so much time of not practicing, but it would be enough.

But first, he needed a way out.

He had been thinking about breaking the glass with a blast, but he did not dare to. He was not sure if the glass would break or repel his powers. No, he needed to find another way and that meant…

Eyes narrowing, Loki eyed the steel framing the front pane. Suddenly, he regretted it deeply that he had spent so much time with the glass and the runes instead of focusing on that…but, the whole steel was on the outside, pressing the panes together.

_It has to be fastened in the stone somehow, then_, he thought. _And if I just have enough time, I might find the rivets or bolts holding it there and open them…_

Before he got any further, the hard sound of boots hurriedly marching in step tore him from his thoughts. Loki did not have to wonder about the meaning, he knew the sound of a gathering force by heart.

His muscles tensed and his heart beat faster, ready for everything, but he controlled himself before he could move, inclining his head slightly to listen.

The steps got louder as they passed his room and went on without stopping. He almost relaxed when he heard the sound of a door being thrown open instead. Loki's head snapped around so sharply the muscles in his neck hurt, but there was nobody there. Instead, the voices in the adjacent room suddenly rose, there were more steps, a door slamming, people rushing down the corridor that probably was on his right and then…

…nothing. Just silence.

Loki sat frozen, slightly leaned forward as if about to jump up, wide eyes fixed on the door.

They had left. Something had pulled their attention and they had just gone, left him alone and probably as good as unguarded. He had already been planning how to free himself and vanish within a few seconds as not to get into a fight with the Avengers…and now _they had left_.

He could not believe his luck.

It was only after he had reveled in that unexpected turn of events that he realized he had probably come from the frying pan into the fire. If not only foot soldiers but also the Avengers were needed and he suddenly was forgotten…it had begun.

With one fast, fluent move, he was back on his feet, pressing himself against the wall he believed the corridor behind and closed his eyes to listen for the clashes, screams and here, also shots that would announce battle, but he was only met by silence.

He did not consider that a good sign yet. It might be that he was underground and too far away, but that would not protect him for long.

He needed to get away.

Loki felt how agitation and panic soared through his veins, his nerves, threatening to shut down every rational thought. He had hesitated to long, been to careful, too_ nervous_ to open the gap further and fasten the process and now he stood here, not enough power re-gathered and…

_No. Enough of this_. _Stop and __**think**__._

He had to wait. They would hold out for a few more minutes and he had to…

_Oh, by the norns…_

Mentally cursing himself, Loki strode through his cage with long determined steps. He chose the far wall, the one that – if they actually _were_ underground – was touching the earth. Dampness would help him here.

Loki steadied himself, raised a hand and touched the place where the two panes touched. He took a deep breath…and let his magic flow.

The runes tried to repel it, but Loki had enchanted knives, arrows and specifically daggers ever since he had been old enough to get his hands on them. Manipulating steel came practically natural to him.

It actually was heavy, thick bolts that had been slammed deeply into the stone. He focused on one, twisted and changed the metal until he saw a tiny bit of dust raining down. He increased his efforts, let his worries and his panic amplify his powers…and then, he saw a gap, not wider than a leaf's rim.

Loki grinned.

Sweat was covering him and he was getting a headache from the strain, but it had worked.

Now, everything went stunningly fast. Once again, his fingertips tingled, became blue. Ice wedged itself into the gap, filling it and thickening rapidly. The steel made a strange, groaning sound. Cracks run over the walls, plaster burst off and the frame began to lean forward, pulling the glass along as the ice spread into both directions, forcing the gap further open.

More damage than he had planned. He knew he had to be fast now.

Dust rained down on him as the ceiling cracked, too. Loki stepped back, swaying with exhaustion, but he could not stop yet.

He pressed both palms against the leaning pane, focused all magical power he had left and pushed forward. For a moment, nothing happened, then Loki let his right arm give way and slammed his shoulder into the glass.

There was a loud, horrible shriek coming from the frame, painful in its volume. Thick plates of color and plaster fell, dusting him in white, stinging in his eyes and then, the whole construction fell and Loki stumbled into freedom.

If before had been wonderful then this was sheer, absolute bliss.

For one or two heartbeats, Loki could only stand there, revel in the feeling of his magic fully returning to him, finally burning away the nagging feel of unreality…and then, an explosion of color and sound violated his senses.

Instinctively, he flinched back as a siren began to howl and red lights suddenly flashed. After seeing mostly grey and white for the past year, he was absolutely not prepared for something like this, could only stand there, hands half-raised against something he could not fight, too stunned to move, feeling as if somebody would drive an iron nail into his skull.

The door flew open and four men rushed in, immediately firing at him.

The noise was horrible, even louder than he remembered it. He fleetingly considered fighting them, but then he felt a sharp, painful sting at his shoulder and that did it.

There was a flare of green and gold, and then the men's rifles were pointing at nothing but thin air.

He did not go far, only outside of the building, where he stood for a moment, looking around and taking in the scene. He was gone again before the men on the yard could recover from the shock of him suddenly appearing between them enough to aim at him.

Next, he appeared in the only place on Midgard he knew well.

The cellar system was cold and dark, the air smelled like mold and dust, but that was exactly what he needed now to recover form his own shock and the headache the sudden light and sound had caused.

The pain in his shoulder still was there and as he looked down, he saw a cylindrical object with something resembling feathers protruding from his chest, right beyond the clavicle. He dragged it out and revealed a needle.

He crushed the thing between his fingers and measured that most of the liquid would course through his veins now. He felt no differences, though. It had probably no effect on him.

Shifting his attention, he let his gaze wander. There were lost and forgotten items laying around, plastic sheets were still spanned between the columns, marking the spot his lair had been last time he had been here.

Loki let himself drop, leaned against a column and looked at the thing with the needle again before throwing it aside and wiping his hand at his trousers.

There had been nothing. .No army, no horrible destruction, no screams, no battle. No Chitauri, no Thanos. Nothing but a night sky covered with thick, grey clouds.

The night sky.

In all the confusion and fear, he had looked over it, but now that he realized he still had time, there was no Thanos hunting him yet, the most astonishing thing occurred to Loki.

He had not seen daylight yet, but the _sky_…breathed actual fresh air, felt the wind and a beginning drizzle on his skin.

He was free.

He was cold and hot, his head ached horribly, he was shaking and his knees felt too weak to stand up, but still, Loki took a deep breath and let it out as shuddering laugh, full of wonder and astonishment and beginning joy.

_I am __**free**_**.**

* * *

And cut!

So this one is longer again…and yeah, I couldn't resist writing the scene from two perspectives again. I realize it's a little…strange with the Chitauri suddenly running in the open, but I can assure you, it's not just a trick from the author to get Loki alone, it'll all make sense in the future!

In this case. it is Cesar Complex, by the way, 'a pathological need of power'. Just so nobody shuns poor Tony^^

I hope you all enjoyed! Reviews and constructive critic are appreciated!

Thanks to you who put this story on favorite or follow and, of course, especially to you, my constant, faithful readers!

Lots of Love,

KandyKitten

P.S. To my reviewers:

**Limmet**: Well, here he is, one active, free-running Loki to go! So I guess he played it half-reckless, half-calculating...but well, this is far from over and anything could still happen. About Tony's assumptions…I'll get there. He's not figured it out yet. Well, thank you for reviewing and till next time!

**Potkanka**: Why thanks! Glad you liked it. Well, I always thought it was strange that Loki mentions the Hulk to Fury…this is my interpretation why. So, now he is free and on the run…but I won't tell what happens next yet^^ Lol, yeah I know the FFN-attitude…it won't let me log out sometimes. Thanks for reviewing!

**LePetitErik:** I know, I know, I've got a knack for dramatic cliffhangers…well, I meant it a little like First one was Loki's punishment, now we're going into conflict mode^^ Glad you liked it! Thanks for the review!

**jaquelinelittle**: Ah….just wait for it, they'll get there…thanks for reviewing!

**coco**: Glad you like it so far! Uh, well, I honestly can't predict my own updates, but I'll try to be fast! Thanks for the review!

**ninjaloki:** Done and done – He is free! Thanks for the review!

**No-MY name's Anonymous:** Glad you like it! So here's the next update…but I can't really predict, all a matter of time and inspiration. I'll try to be regular, though! Thanks for reviewing!

**NoContol:** Thank you for the review! Glad you liked it so far!

**angrbodagiantress:** So, he's not only escaped, he also used his Jotun-abilities to do so….yeah, I always found it a bit illogical that he was a frost giant but has no control over it unless he touches the casket…so I gave him a reason to. Well, anyways, thanks for the review!


	12. On The Move

Hey Guys! Here comes KandyKitten, crawling out of her hiding once again.

So sorry it took so long – a month, my god – but, as everybody who may have clicked on my profile in the past weeks knows, I twisted (it's the best word I know, it's something wrong with the cords since I fell unfortunately) my wrist pretty badly and I couldn't type or write in any way for two weeks straight.

Anyways, it's better now and I can type again, but…well. I've not been working on this story for quite a while and I'll have to find my way back to it, so this chapter…it's not my best. It's my arch back to Tangle and it doesn't do too much for the story…but I'll be getting better again soon.

Well, enough explanation…I'll let you read yourself back into this piece now.

Lots of Love, KandyKitten

* * *

The team was assembled in the former laboratory that now looked like a construction site. They had formed a loose circle in the dust-covered cage around the place where the cot had sat. Now, it was shoved aside, revealing the splinters that had been hidden underneath - one of the enigmas Loki had left them with.

Steve was sitting on his heels, arms on his knees, but now he reached out to touch the hole in the glass floor. "It goes right through one of the runes."

"How could that happen?" Fury stood in the middle of the room, arms crossed and fingers tapping on his arm. With his solely-black clothes, he looked even more imposing than usually in all the bright dust. The few agents in the room nervously bee-lined around him, trying not to get in his line of sight.

Tony could not blame them. He, too, had never seen Fury looking this close to losing control.

"You said he would be powerless behind those walls."

"And he should have been." Thor was not looking at Fury, but at the frame's rim. Seeing the video of Loki's escape, he had thought the stuff still covering it as a thin layer was ice, but it was too…stable. Too cold despite the continuously rising temperature. "I do not know how he could have broken through."

For a moment, Tony wondered. Whatever that stuff was, it meant something to Thor, so could it be the man was lying to them?

But he didn't want to start arguing with a friend in front of Fury, especially as he still wanted to support said friend, so he shoved the thought aside for the moment and turned back to the conversation. They could talk about that later.

"Especially without us noticing," Natasha let her fingertips slide along the sharp edge to its origin. "Looks almost like chisel marks or something. We never saw him move this thing, did we?"

"Or holding a weapon," Bruce added. "He couldn't do that by hand."

"So he did it per magic." Fury gave Thor a meaningful look. "Something he shouldn't have been able to do, as _someone_ here assured us."

Slowly, Thor definitely had enough of the accusations. "Something he should not be able to do inside a flawless net. Even the smallest mistake could have given him enough room for something like this."

"Are you saying this is our fault?" Fury was all but snarling by now.

"I am saying that maybe, you were too hasty and made a mistake," Thor growled back, sounding no less imposing.

"Hasty? It's not your world that is on the line here, it's mine. And if you had not been so hell-bent on protecting a delusional, ruthless killer, we would have known everything we needed long before he did this."

_Delusional, ruthless killer_, Tony sarcastically thought. _Smooth one, Nicky_.

Aloud, he said, "Right, guys. Childs and wells remember? So why don't you two continue this conversation once we talked about how we get him back?"

"Get him back?" Clint scoffed. "He's probably halfway across the globe…or the fucking universe by now."

"Excuse me, Sir…but I don't think that's the case." One of the agents – or soldiers, maybe? – had taken a step forward. He looked seasoned, but when solely being in the focus of a whole band of superheroes and a few of his bosses' bosses, he shrunk into himself.

"And what exactly makes you think that?" Fury barked at him.

"One is missing. One of us must have taken a hit." The soldier slowly raised his fist, holding something colorful up. Tony frowned, stood up and closed in, trying to see what it was and then…

"Stun darts?" he asked incredulously, almost amused, raising his brows at Fury. "Really?"

They did not even look like the modern, tiny darts he knew, but more like those he had seen in old movies before, like syringes with bushy flight stabilizers – two yellow, one red - on one and a short needle on the other end.

Fury tore them from the soldier's grip. "Tranquilizer darts equipped with Adamantium needles and filled with a highly proficient sedative. What's coursing in his veins right now is enough to take out every human in this room, so even he should lie flat right now. For a few hours, at least."

Turning sharply, Fury started to yell instructions, ordering his people to form groups. "We start with his former headquarters and set a perimeter of at least twenty blocks all around it. Coulson, Hill! Hack into surveillance cameras, cellphones I don't care what it is, at long as we have eyes on everything! Send out agents in civil, too. And check every hospital in case he collapsed somewhere in the open."

Hill and Colson, whose face was harder than usual, nodded and left the room, waving for some of the people to follow them, ultimately leaving the Avengers alone with Fury. The director stared tensely at them, growled, "And you make yourself valuable somehow, too," before stalking out.

The Avengers watched him leave silently, then Clint said, "That still doesn't explain how Loki could run, though."

Tony rolled his eyes. As if that would help them along right now…but he could understand Clint, too, so he decided to keep it shut.

Bruce sighed and put his glasses –now decorated with white prints - back on. "We put a lot of pressure on that glass. If it contracted or moved a few millimeters or something, would that be enough?"

Thor shrugged slowly. "Was it everybody else, I would say no, but with Loki…he is capable of incredible things if he is determined enough."

"Good." Steve stood up, too, dusted his hands off. "Now that that riddle's solved..."

Fury might be too angry to consult Thor on his brother, but the rest of the team was not…just as they didn't really believe one syringe-full of simple sedatives could knock Loki out. Other than Fury, they had seen how easily Thor withstood any form of earthly poison and why should it be different with the younger brother?

"You know Loki best. Let's say he's still awake, probably weakened. What will he do?"

"He will go to a place he knows first."

"So he will probably be in this cellar he was in last time," Steve concluded. "We should go there, too, then and…"

"But he will not stay for long," Thor interjected. "Loki knows we know this place and he will be gone before we come to confront him."

Natasha crossed her arms. "Will he leave the city?"

Thor shook his head, then shrugged. "I cannot say. He might run as far as he possibly can and leave the planet, but I do not think so. He still should be too weakened to reach any other realm than one of this nine and on most of those, his face is fairly known. He would be taken the moment someone discovered him."

"So he is running free somewhere in the city," Clint muttered. "Great. Just…fucking great."

"Shouldn't he… stand out?" Tony asked. "Even for New York's standards, dressed like that he sure should make an impression."

"No. If he decides to stay out in the open, he will make sure to look midgardian." There was a deep worry in Thor's voice, but also a slight tone of appreciation, maybe even a hint of pride that the man just couldn't hide.

Natasha frowned, staring at the holes in the wall...and then something hit her. "We might have a bigger problem," she slowly said.

The rest of them turned to her. "What do you mean?" Steve asked worriedly.

"There was something, I noticed that before with the people who...with victims of deprivation. It's pretty obvious in the video, how he flinched away from all the sound and light as if it would scare or hurt him." Seeing that she still received incredulous looks, she rolled her eyes and went on. "That was one siren and he was already freaking out."

Tony closed his eyes flutteringly when he got where Natasha was getting at (remembering how overwhelming the city had been after the weeks in Afghanistan, actually). "And right now, he is in the middle of New York City."

Clint suddenly looked worried. "You think it will be that bad?"

"Well I sure was confused when I woke up and saw all those cars and screens and neon lights everywhere," Steve admitted. "So, Thor, you think he'll react violent?"

"I cannot say," Thor said again. "Loki's first reaction to confusion or fear usually is to withdraw. If he is faced by a person, though….if he feels cornered, confronted in any way, he will fight all the more vehemently."

So they had an agitated demigod getting violent when he felt cornered and a hardcore bunch of agents and soldiers hunting him down right in a tight, noisy civilian neighborhood. Tony tried to rake a hand through his hair, remembered his suit in the last moment and settled with a sigh.

Suddenly, he was feeling very tired.

"Then we'll have to catch him before there are too many people on the streets." Steve's voice took on its commanding tone that had the strange ability to send the rest of the team into immediate action mode. "We fan out, try to get eyes on him. Stark…"

"On it." Tony flicked out his phone and switched it on. "Jarvis, hack into every camera in the whole city. Run the footage of the past thirty minutes, too. Watch out for Loki. And stay on all of SHIELD's frequencies, I want to know every move Fury makes."

"Will do, Sir," the smooth voice replied immediately.

Tony thought about cutting the connection, hesitated and added, "And tell Pepper not to leave Miami until I tell her its save. Tell her not to leave, no matter what she hears or sees on the news."

"Certainly, Sir."

He cut the connection, stared at the device for a moment and prayed Pepper would listen to him – this was promising to become ugly soon, if not through Loki, then through the Chitauri, and he wanted her out of the way, as far as possible – then he pulled himself together, straightened up and put on the helmet, following Steve outside.

Loved ones brought into relative safety, there was no time for any more thoughts and doubts. The team set into motion to leave the facility and fan out over the city as good as possible.

* * *

While the Avengers discovered and discussed his breakout, Loki already was on the move.

After all the frenzy, he wanted nothing more but to stay in the cellar's darkness for a while, planning his next move, but he was not stupid. Two of the humans working for this Fury had been here for a long time, had maybe shown it to the others and it would only be a matter of time before they would search it.

So, he reluctantly stood up and immediately noticed something was not right. He stretched out his hand to steady himself against the column when the dizziness he had not noticed while sitting hit him. For a moment, the world tilted, then he had himself back under control and the sensation vanished.

He was not sure if it was from exhaustion or the poison, but it meant the same: He was not able to take them on yet, thus he had to leave.

Focusing on every motion, he managed to dust himself off and weave a magical veil that would protect him from being seen – he did not plan on keeping that for long, though, he was feeling too dizzy still. He would look for someone whose clothes he could copy and then blend in.

With that plan fast in mind, he set into motion, swiftly moving through the cellar system and then through the dim-lit streets of the still mostly sleeping city. The drizzle was not strong enough to soak him, and instead of making him freeze, the cold soothed his headache and countered the dizziness and, for once, Loki was not bothered by that.

He moved according to the plan, steadily and without hesitation…until he reached a main street.

When he saw it, Loki stopped dead, freezing completely.

It was…sheer horror, the cars that noisily rushed back and forth even now, the bright screens showing colorful pictures and words that had no context or meaning for him – nobody ever had explained the concept of advertisement to him. He almost turned his back and walked away, but forced himself forward, right into the colorful shine. As long as he kept his head down, it was manageable.

It did not help against the…_pressure_, though. He was used to the wide, splendorous constructions on Asgard and these block-like things reaching into the equally grey sky made him feel dwarfed, contained…

He truly wished he could be in an open field where he would not feel the pressure of those stone walls closing down on him from all sides, but he knew they – and the crowds that hopefully were to come – would be his best protection against discovery (and against an open attack, of course).

Still…he wished to leave this noisy place with its lights and stink far behind.

Sighing, Loki rose his gaze from his boots, not high, just far enough to see the vibrant lights blinking distortedly in the puddles on the sidewalk, creating a twisted picture of the city lights around him, then as it did neither worsened his headache nor hurt anymore, he curiously looked up higher, up to the sky. It was brightening slightly already…but it could just be the city's brightness reflected in the clouds.

A loud, humming roar caught his attention. Loki had learned to recognize it as a car's sound and averted his eyes from the headlights…and his gaze caught something else instead.

In the short flash of light, he could see the shelves behind a windowpane, some of them obviously loaded with food, some bearing things of unknown purpose. Loki took all that in with one glance, but dismissed it just as fast, because the room was dark.

In the darkness, the pane was a mirror.

Slowly, he stepped closer, until he could see more than the street and a dark figure, that was not much more than a distorted blur, until he saw a tall man, his face hidden in shadow and his build concealed behind thick, black fabric. He watched the man raise a thin hand, saw him hesitate, saw the hood being pushed back.

It was the first time Loki saw his own reflection since the fleeting glances he had caught in the steel and glass Midgad's cities were so full of.

It was the first time since almost two years that he actually examined it.

The first thing he noticed was that he had lost some weight – he had indeed known that, but he had not known it was visible. It undeniably was. He was alarmingly pale, too…probably the effect of being inside too long.

_Do I actually look this miserable? _

Frowning, Loki tried to smooth his perturbed hair….and suddenly, he froze, staring at his reflection wide-eyed.

Now that his hair was no longer held back by gel, it fell lightly around his face and neck, slightly curling at the tips, and loosely combed back in a style that matched Thor's, it actually gave him a slight resemblance to his not-brother.

_Except for the color_, Loki thought, letting a hand wander over the strands again, closely watching as the half-stranger in the reflection did the same_. But then, we never truly had anything in common, especially not physically. Not even our blood. Nothing._

Apart from their eyes, maybe. They both had blue eyes.

If, maybe, Odin gave him those eyes to resemble Thor more, to give reason to believe they were related? Or had his skin remembered what it should look like and held on to a color of ice?

Loki shuddered and hastily tried to shove the thought aside. This was the wrong place and most certainly the wrong time and the Jotun's eyes were not blue but…

_...red. Completely_.

Loki cocked his head aside in contemplation.

Never when he had used his estranged Jotun-abilities had he wondered if they would become overall red, too, but now he did, tried to imagine himself when this red gleam shone from his eyes, from a face with a darker complexion than he had now.

He only stopped himself from smashing the glass by remembering it might alert somebody to his presence.

He could not stop the wave of loathing that washed over him, though, and suddenly, he did not want to stay here. Did not want to keep looking at himself.

With tense, jerky movements, he pulled the hood up again, stuffed his hair under it, turned and marched away, muscles taut and shaking, fingers moving to create a weapon and he balled them into a fist instead. He had used this cursed blood too often in the past. It was _affecting_ him.

_Thor must have seen it. On the cage. He knows what it means. He knows you can…._

"Forget him," he growled lowly. "He does not matter." But as much as he tried to convince himself that it was true, he could not help the tinge of shame mingling into all the anger and loathing as he moved on, trying to make it through the night.

* * *

The morning eventually came, and with it came the masses, concealed by hoods and umbrellas. Sometimes, they would store sometimes throw suspicious glances at the uncountable agents, black cars and even a few helicopters roaring above, but mostly, they minded their own business of hastening from doors to cars, from cars to doors, from store to store.

Loki did move among them, watching and, once again, could not help but to think from above, the city must look like an anthill. Then again, maybe that was true for every town.

A faint smirk appeared on his lips, letting his eyes sparkle for just a moment.

Loki's mood had not exactly improved over the night, but his condition had. His ability to think clearly came back and even the noise of the flying machines circling high above his head was only annoying, no longer overwhelming to him.

As if on cue, one of those things roared past and Loki lowered his head, carefully looking around. If he was the only one facing away, he would look suspicious…but he was not. Only few faces, many of them those of children, turned upward to look. The rest did not react, they kept walking, running, talking.

Almost disbelieving, Loki let his eyes wander over the crowd, over people in tight, impractical clothing that he knew would hinder and slow instead of protect in fight or flight. He remembered the fatality of the sheer mass, how the cars became either death-traps or obstacles during an attack.

Yet, those people behaved exactly as they had before the Chitauri had come, moved in the same way, dragged their unprotected youngest with them in the open. They behaved as if…

Loki frowned again, slowing his steps, his eyes widened in what he thought was sudden understanding.

He had heard the gathering forces, had heard the mortal team leave in a hurry…but that could have been for another reason, maybe one of their own criminals. And they had left other guards, the men who had fired at him…and then, the was those people bumbled around…carelessly…they behaved…

They behaved as if they would not fear a coming attack.

But why did they not, when the Chitauri were moving among them again? How could they be so without fear and care after all the pain and death of the last attack?

It was incredible, impossible and Loki felt the sudden, bizarre urge to laugh_. _

_Could it be? _

* * *

Welcome to the end of chapter twelve!

Again, sorry I took so long. From now on, I'll be working more swiftly again^^

Next time…I guess, we'll have a look into what Loki plans to do next, now that he has the possibility to (of course) and soon, we'll have another look into Asgard, too (it's about time!). And of course, there're some confrontations ahead…

I hope you all enjoyed! Reviews and constructive critic are appreciated!

Thanks to you who put this story on favorite or follow and, of course, especially to you, my constant, faithful readers! I love you all!

Lots of Love,

KandyKitten

P.S. To my reviewers:

**Potkanka**: I know what you mean, I'm rooting for our lovely psychopath, too…well, he didn't enjoy his freedom for long, I guess…but at least, he's still free and there's been nothing horrible happening so far! Oh well, the Avengers are choosing Loki over Chitauri right now…they are long gone anyways and if not, SHIELD has surveillance. And yep, Thor's in trouble now…his credibility has passed away….but who cares about what Fury thinks? Anyways, thanks for the review! Till next time!

**Shall be lifted Nevermore**: Thanks^^ Glad you liked it and thanks for the review!

**jaquelinelittle**: I don't know, I think he might have brought himself into danger a little because he acted without planning – there could have been a dozen traps in the room, but then, he got lucky. Anyways, it worked and he's finally in the wind! No, they are not considering he leads them or knows anything about the current plan (though it _could_ be a back-up, of course) but Loki could still tell them about their real strength, from where they could come, maybe weapons they might have held back and such, so he's still valuable…and he still could _take_ the leading position again, of course. Can't tell you anything about SHIELD…would give away too much^^ Guessed right: They go after Loki! Let's see how good that works out…thanks for reviewing and till next time!

**LePetitErik**: Thank you for reviewing and glad you liked it! I'm trying to keep up^^

**Limmet**: Ah, no, he's not been thinking about revenge, just about getting away…but the urge that has already started to come up again will intensify a little…but well, you'll see that in the next chapters^^ Well, glad you liked it so far, thanks for the review and hope you stay in line! Till next time!

**Guest#1**: Here is more and even more will follow!

**ninjalok**i: Thank you! Glad you liked the way I had him running^^ Thanks for the review and till next time^^

**Guest#2**: Uuuuhh…well how can I give you information without giving information…well, there are some bad-but-not-too-horrible things to come…but it's still gonna be hard for Loki before it can become better. Well, anyways, thanks for the review and I hope you stay in line! Till next time!

**no-MY name is Anonymus**: And hopefully, he'll stay out for a while! A Loki-complex..doesn't sound too bad, maybe it'll make it! But even if not: thanks for the review! Till next time!

**ShadowAbsol**: Oh yeah, he is! Thanks for reviewing and I hope you stay on line!

**angrbodagiantress**: Thank you for the flowers, you're making me go all red…well it's going to take some time before all is cleared up…until then: I'm glad you liked it and thank you for reviewing! 'Till next time!


	13. All The Wrong Conclusions

Hello, hello! Here I am again!

So well, what we are facing here is…a little chapter that brings out the potential of some new conflicts – some worse than others – and also is a first for me as it is the first one that actually has a little explainer up front.

As you will see in a minute, we return to Asgard and I feel like I should say something about them. I have to admit I found Sif not the most sympathetic character in the movie, so she always seems to get a little…harsh when I try her, and she sometimes takes the role of expressing what Asgard might negatively feel about Loki, but to everybody who fears (or hopes, sorry, people) exactly that since I first let her appear: I won't go into simple bashing!

The second part with Loki as main actor…oh well, you'll see. It'll all explain itself ^^

That said, I put away the mic now, sit down and let the story continue. Have fun!

Lots of Love, KandyKitten

Most characters and settings ©by Marvel

* * *

The observatory's destruction had not been enough to keep Heimdall from his post. He had stood under the open sky right at the Biföst's splintered edge watching the rest of the realms, but now that their main way of traveling was the Tesseract, his place was at the golden gates separating the open Bifröst from the city, where he would handle until a way to repair the bridge was found.

And that was where they found him, with his back turned towards them, staring into the far-away space with never-blinking eyes. Both hands rested on the gigantic sword hat had been swung nine times since the day Heimdall had taken it into possession, eight times victoriously and one time not, as he had raised it to swing it futilely against Loki's neck.

As they closed in, Sif reigned in the horse hard and jumped off before the animal had stopped, walking the last feet to the Gatekeeper.

Heimdall did not even turn his eyes from the nebulas ahead as they apprehensively approached. He only said, "If you hope to travel after Thor, I cannot help you."

Sif took a deep breath. "You know why we are here."

"You should not listen in on talks on the street. Neither should you listen_ to_ talk on the street." There was a final note to Heimdall's tone that usually ended conversation, but none of them was willing to back down this time.

"Not usually, maybe, but this was more than common rumors. This was two confidants, one of then a known, honored man, talking about a shared secret and you must understand we need to know if what we heard was true."

There was a long silence. They waited, shifting nervously. Deep inside, they all hoped Heimdall would just say no, of course Loki is no frost-giant …a simple, open 'no' that would leave their world intact.

Instead, Heimdall said, "Even if there was anything true in their words, I would be bound by oath and honor and could not answer your questions."

No straight answer….but all of them had heard Heimdall's - and Loki's, for that matter – veiling half-answers often enough to know a hidden 'yes' when they heard it. Still, as badly-hidden as this yes was, even the clearest assumptions were not enough. Not this time.

"Heimdall, you have found a way around your oath before." No reaction. Sif took another deep, calming breath, but her voice stayed unnaturally weak. "_Brother."_

The silence that followed was unbearably tense, and though it only lasted for seconds, it seemed to stretch for an eternity.

"About this matter I can tell you this," he finally started, a little hesitantly, "and _solely_ this: Sometimes, talks that were not meant for stranger's ears do concern the truth. The one man concerned by this one does share much less with your friend and his family than their appellations might imply."

Sif felt as if somebody had emptied a bucket of cold water over her head. Before, this had been a faint idea, but now…she was not sure what shocked her most, the fact itself, being lied at for so long, never noticing. But whatever it was…this went against everything she knew.

"What…it is true? Does…who, who else knows about that?" Fandral stammered. Volstagg shook his head and said, "If that is a jest, good Heimdall…" Sif, not able to speak yet, made a sound between a laugh and a gasp.

Heimdall did not react to any of that. "I will also tell you that only very few people know of this and I would advise you not to change that."

Sif gaped in disbelieve. "You…tell us to _lie_?"

And this time, the gatekeeper turned to look at them, quite an impressive sight, even for them, who were used to Heimdall towering above them whenever they had ridden out to travel somewhere far away.

"I do not tell or order you anything. I gave you a council that you should, for our own and other's safety, take." He took the time to look all of them in the eye, staying on Sif the longest, then he turned away.

"You will return home now." His golden eyes unfocused, a clear sign that he would not say anything more.

Sif turned and looked at the men, who all looked as shell-shocked as she felt, then she brushed past them and made her way over to the horses. She had just closed her hand around the reins when something else flashed through her mind.

"Will you tell Odin we came here?"

There was no further answer, not even a sign she had been heard. Feeling a strange mixture of anger, hurt and confusion burn through her veins, Sif pulled herself into the saddle, impatiently waiting for the others to get ready, too. She was not sure where she wanted to go…she knew she wanted to get away from here right this instant.

As soon as Volstagg finally had swung his leg over his heavy battle horse – no racer was strong enough to carry his girth – Sif spurred her horse on, rushing down the streets with breakneck speed, instinctively taking course on the stables.

She was not thinking clearly, in fact, she was so occupied with putting her world back in order that she only realized Fandral was trying to get her attention when he leaned over and seized the rein he could reach.

The horse's head was pulled aside as Fandral reigned both of them in. For a moment Sif felt her leg being squeezed between the two animal's heavy bodies, then they fell into a slower gait and drifted apart, almost pulling Fandral off his saddle, thus forcing him to let go.

"What was that about?!"

Sif glared at him with the power of all the frustration and confusion she felt twisted into anger. The venom in this particular stare had been enough to make even grown warriors shrink back from her in the past, but Fandral knew her and stood his ground.

"We are within the city's borders, Sif. I know you are upset, we all are, but you cannot barge through the streets like…"

He had been about to say '_Like a Frost-Giant gone berserk_' but managed to swallow the words before they came out. Sif was staring at him still, now inquisitively.

"Like what, exactly." It was no question.

"Like all the beasts of Muspelheim were chasing you!" he bit out and Sif snorted, turning her attention back to the way and let her horse speed up again, settling for a fast trot. She was not in the mood for riot acts, even though they were justified.

Behind her, she could hear the others following her, for once without squabbling.

* * *

At the stables, Sif threw the reins to the next-best boy, made a few, long strides and stopped again, unsure what to do.

Her first instinct was to go to the training grounds and exercise herself until she was too tired to think. Then she thought about riding back to force Heimdall to bring her to Midgard, so she could confront Loki himself…or, even better, Thor.

Instead, she followed the men inside, up to the broad hall they had sat in so many times after quests and fights, They were silent still as they all heavily dropped onto the settees, facing each other. They all were looking tired, as if they had done something much more difficult than a little training and a sharp ride.

"Do you think that is why he brought the Frost Giants here?" Sif asked after a long while of silence.

Fandral sighed and leaned forward until he could feel the fire's heat on his face, placed his elbows on his knees to stare into the flames. "But why would he have killed Laufey, then? That is not..."

A thought came like a flash and she doubted it – shunned it, even – within the same heartbeat. But this was one of her big flaws: she always needed a vent, something to release her anger on, and as no one was here, she released it in an idea. Maybe later she would cast aside this concept but until then…

"Maybe," Sif icily undercut him, "once he knew what he was he wanted their throne together with ours."

"He did not kill both kings at once, though," Hogun muttered. None of the others was entirely sure if it was musings or a simple statement.

"And he tried to destroy their planet," Fandral added, almost defensively. Sure, he had not forgotten or forgiven yet…but something deep within him rebelled against this idea.

"Who said he did?" Sif asked.

The men exchanged glances. Even Hogun's usually expressionless face showed some confusion…and then, his eyes widened just a little.

"Think about it," Sif continued, her voice low, as if that would help against Heimdall listening. "He brought some rouges in, he brought their king and his men in, what if he opened the Bifröst to let their army in next?"

"There was much destruction on Jotunheim," Volstagg slowly said, but it sounded unconvinced.

Sid scoffed and made a sharp, dismissive gesture, her hand cutting the air in an unusually trembling, fluttering gesture. "He miscalculated. The bridge responds to the powers of Heimdall and Odin, not of Loki."

"Sif, he hated them," Fandral started up again, what gained him an almost relieved nod from Volstagg. "Just like all of us, _he hated them_."

"That did not keep him from letting them _into the weapon's vault_ at the coronation." She threw her hands in the air. "By Hel, maybe he just pretended all the time, who could tell?"

The men were silent. Fandral was worrying his sleeve, the only sign of the inner fight he gave away. From the corner of his eye, he could see Volstagg's fingers restlessly combing through his beard and vaguely wondered if the man was having the same thoughts as he had.

He did not want to believe that Loki, a man he had known for centuries, could have tried to overrun his home with the force of a hostile planet. But that was the problem: He had not wanted to believe that Loki could have betrayed them, he had not wanted to believe that he would get Thor banished, that he would ever be their enemy… would ever try to kill them.

"Do you think Thor knows this?" he asked loudly, half to change the subject, half to drown out his own thoughts.

"If he does, I'm going to break his nose," Sif muttered, making it sound much less like a joke than like a threat, then she sighed. "I am not sure. He did behave a little…strange whenever Loki was mentioned. On the other hand…"

Again, that fluttering, nervous gesture and they all knew what it meant. Thor openly hated the frost-giants and he openly loved Loki.

"We'll just have to ask him," Volstagg decided and Fandral laughed humorlessly. "If we do and he does not know, we will have to tell him," he reminded the others. He tried to imagine _that_ conversation, but he did not manage to.

"As his friends, it would be our duty," Sif said forcibly calm and nobody could deny that. They would have to talk to him, inform him if necessary and they would do it when he came back from Midgard.

Still, for the first time since they knew him, none of them actually wanted Thor to be back soon.

* * *

Not quite two days after Sif and the Worrier's Three had left for their homes, still struggling to understand the revelations they had just received, Loki stood on a street in the middle of Manhattan, struggling to understand what he believed to be a revelation that came almost as a shock to him.

It was…unbelievable, impossible even….but Loki thought it had to be right.

Probably. _Maybe_.

He could not believe he could have been played this well by the mortals, especially as he had thought them to be quite hasty and ingenuous when they had tried to question him, so much he had not thought it might be a ruse…but still…

Once again, he let his gaze wander over the crowd, over men and women, uncaring and unarmed. The small restaurants Loki had, through their experiences, learned to be dangerous during an attack with their lack of space and exits, were full of people who did not seem to be bothered by the potential danger they were in.

Almost fascinated, Loki stopped and watched them for a moment, too, before the smell of some bitter brewage, melted butter and sizzling fat, a mixture that woke both nagging hunger and sickness, became too much and drove him away.

On the other hand, it could not be any different.

Loki was not sure if he should be impressed or angry. Maybe both.

He knew that Odin and his court had lied to the citizens sometimes – he had told them Loki was his son, for instance – but he had never left them in the dark about a war or an attack that could threaten their lives, he had always given them time to prepare, to protect themselves and their loved ones. Thus, Loki, who had no idea of human policies, could read only one meaning into the human civilian's behavior.

They knew they were not in danger.

Fury and the Avengers had tricked him – well, he had to admit, but that was no excuse, either - and he had fallen for it like a witless oaf. He had actually believed the Chitauri would threaten Midgard again, even when all they wanted was located on Asgard.

_Is this actually possible? Is it __**plausible**__? _

Deep down, he was not convinced at all. The spy had described the Chitauri's behavior in a way she could not have known and, overall, he did not see a reason why the humans would have taken the risk of bringing him back into their world when there was nothing they had to worry about…but then…

Concentrating, Loki let the conversations he had had with the humans since he had been brought here run through his mind again. It had been Romanoff to first say 'they are here', but then, she was a masterful liar. And Thor…he had focused on him instead of the humans' – supposed – problems...but…

'_You cannot want them to come here', that is what he said. __**To come here**__. Not 'They are here'. Not 'you cannot want them to kill so many again'._

And Fury…he had asked what they wanted - maybe pretended? - but despite the urgency and the threats he had never carried out, he had not stayed on the topic, had left and allowed slow, dragging questioning…he must have had a reason for that, as surely they had absolutely none to spare him. In fact, even before, he had said…

"I want to know everything," Loki whispered to himself. "Everything."

_And what does everything mean? _

They had tried to make weapons from the Tesseract itself…and now that it was no longer within their reach…might it be that they had changed their focus onto the Chitauri instead, on the vehicles and weapons that had been stranded here after the portal had collapsed? Was it that they wanted to know from him, how they were activated, how they were steered and used?

_But is it plausible? They could not know if Iwase able to tell them something they could probably find out by testing themselves. Would they risk my escape for such small a chance?_

The answer was no. It did not make any sense. But then, not much had made sense in those past days.

Loki shook his head and sighed. The question whether Thanos would appear here soon or if Thor and his mortal followers would be his only problems was too important to stay unanswered, but he had no possibility to find out yet, so Loki decided to settle for solving what problems and necessities connected those two possibilities.

No matter who would come, he would need to defend himself. He would need to take some precautions.

First of all, he needed a little more time. And he needed a weapon.

Unconsciously, Loki placed a hand over his hip, where the heavy shirt concealed the throwing daggers in his belt. They had always been very reliable, but now that the humans had those needles that could pierce his skin, he would probably need more.

And he did know realms, not only in the nine, where a hunted man could get all the armory he needed.

Loki knew it was risky to leave the realm while he was still so out of practice…but he also knew a place where a path between the realms had been torn open, maybe far enough for him to use it. And the most amusing thing about it was that Thor himself had opened said path for him when he had used the Tesseract to bring them both to Asgard.

Loki looked around, trying to orientate himself, squinting to read the street signs through the rain.

The memories forced onto him in Asgard had done more than wanted. The humans had known the streets of their city in a way he did not and, even though he would rather try to forget, he could use this knowledge.

Moments later, Loki turned and crossed the street in the middle of the crowd, memories and his own intuition leading him to Central Park.

He never noticed the security cameras turning to follow him.

* * *

He had only seen a very small part of the park before, but now, he could see even here there had been damage.

On his way to the other side, he came across a place where parts of trees and rock were still scattered, on one of them, he could even see burn marks.

He also came across a newly-build, not entirely finished place, surrounded by slim trees. Small stairs, guarded by stone lions, led down to a round with a fountain in the middle, stone-horses pulling stone-chariots through the water. They were seemingly galloping, wildly shaking their manes. Maybe they were meant to express freedom and wildness, but Loki thought they looked as if they were fleeing from the mosaic snake winding itself around the outer wall.

He took a decent moment to admire the details, then he hasted over the open space, head lowered.

Due to the rain, there were not many people here, since he had entered the park, he had seen few and met only four, and the lack of a crowd made him nervous. He was an easy target now.

He concentrated and felt for the right place again, but on his way there, not far away from the fountain, he saw something else, something that did not seem to fit in here: Something that looked like it had once been part of a black wall, now surrounded by a floor that was…uneven. Edgy, shimmering at some places.

As if somebody had placed something there.

The former pathway was not far away. Leaving the straight path to look at this contraption was a foolish idea, he was sure of it…but he wanted to know.

Unaware of the lurking men, slowly closing in, Loki turned, moved towards the strange, black construction until he was close enough to see…and to freeze in horror. The wind shoved his hood down, tore at his hair and whipped rain against his skin, but all he could do was to stare.

The object was made of dark marble, a simple thing. Chiseled lines running all around it and golden letters, too small to form him to read from here, were the only ornamentation if you did not count the flowers around the base. Paths spread out from it in the form of rays to a wide marble circle connecting them. The space between them – Loki did not know, but it was, as the rest of the site, paved with the debris of the city – was littered with newspaper cuttings, cards, uncountable flowers and toys and hundreds of pictures.

Loki had no doubt it was a shrine.

He slowly closed in, until he was at the marble circle's rim, shining and slick with wetness, not stepping on it yet. He was close enough now to make out what was written on the cards, to see the faces. Right in at his feet was a picture of a man he – through a woman whose flight he had experienced in the Mindcage - knew.

He wanted to leave, but instead, he slowly walked a half circle around the shrine.

Loki did not know what he was looking for, but he found the man who had burned in his car. He found the pregnant women killed by Chitauri aircrafts…and many more.

He did not find the girl in the pink dress (he refused to call her by a name, even though he was not sure why) but he saw a sign with eight pictures and names on it, saying they all had died when the building they had celebrated a birthday in had collapsed. One of them had been thirty, the rest, except one, not yet five.

Loki felt his throat constricting. Breathing suddenly was hard, almost painful.

He wanted to turn away, but his body did not react. For a moment, he considered walking up to the collective gravestone, to see if he did recognize any names, too, but he did not think he had the right to enter the marble ring.

His eyes found the sign again. _Did they...did fath…Odin want to spare me from at least some of those things? Or is this what was to come…did I wake up soon enough not to have to go through this? _

But before he could think about this thoroughly, a voice rang out from behind him, a deep voice, definitely belonging to a man, filled with cold hatred that gave him the idea this was not actually meant as a joke or taunt.

"Admiring your achievements?"

* * *

Welcome, dear readers, to the end of chapter thirteen.

I have obviously never been to Central Park, so everyone of you who was: please forgive me for taking a certain freedom with describing it…and going on with it, because it gives me the room I need for…oh well you'll see^^

Anyways, fitting for the unlucky number, there's been a lot of misunderstandings and bad luck here….and it's not going to get better soon! Next time, I think we'll solely spend in New York, with SHIELD – with some powerful support - facing Loki down…and a certain trickster god not giving up so easily…well, until the: Keep save, keep healthy and well!

Special thanks to all of you who put the story on favorites or follow!

Lots of Love, KandyKitten

P.S. To everybody who took the time to review:

**mandarino**: Glad you enjoyed it…and I hope you enjoy sharp-minded Loki, too. Thanks for the review.

**LePetitErik**: Thanks^^ I'm glad you enjoyed it and hope, you're content with this update! Thanks for reviewing!

**no-My name is Anonymous:** Ah, thank you for the flowers! Ah, yes, Fury and his lack of tact…I mean, that's what makes him badass…and an ass, every now and then. And thank you, my wrist's loads better already, just a little stiff sometimes. Anyways, thanks for reviewing and till next time^^

**angrbodagiantress:** Thanks! Good you liked that one, I always feel like Thor just cannot stop loving Loki, no matter what he does…and that admiration is just part of it…and Tony, well, he might seem like a narcissistic ass sometimes, but he's a good guy after all^^. Yeah, poor Loki…all his strength are flaws in his culture. But then, if it wasn't, nobody could write, read and make movies about it so….yeah. No complaints^^ Anyways, thanks for reviewing!

**Potkanka:** Yeah, I feel like Thor did pay at least a certain amount of attention to Loki, he does love him, after all…he just wasn't too good in expressing it in the past years. And you're probably right, he should finally come clear about Loki's heritage…but he has his reasons, too. Ah yes, Loki's blue eyes... little anecdote: I didn't read most of the comics, only that I could find and open online, but still, in the first draft, Loki still _was_ green-eyed. But then somebody told me that Loki had to be controlled by the Chitauri because his eyes are blue in the movie, though he's green-eyed and I was like: What? So I checked and when I saw the blue eyes in Thor, this little perfectionist in my head was nagging and nagging and then this scene (glad you liked that^^) popped up in my head…and well, now he's blue eyed. Anyways, thank you for reviewing and till next time!

**Limmet:** How about that, maybe that voice telling me: 'Sit down and type fast' actually was yours! I'm glad you liked the chapter^^ And here is more! Or well, was, if you didn't read the answer before the chapter. Well, anyways, thanks for reviewing! Till next time!

**Lotus seed:** Glad you like the story! And yep, everything will be clear eventually^^ So, here was the update, hope you step by next time, too^^ Thanks for the review!


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